044: How to become an NFL executive with Marissa Fernandez

Marissa Fernandez is a native-born Cubana with over 8 years of Hispanic marketing experience across a variety of brands and companies.  A self-proclaimed brand-geek, Marissa believes strongly in the “consumer is boss” mentality engrained in her early on in her career at P&G.

She currently serves as Director of Fan Strategy & Marketing for the National Football League, America’s most popular sports league.  In this role, Marissa’s primary responsibility is to lead the league’s Hispanic Fan Growth Strategy  she aims to accelerate NFL fan development amongst the fast-growing Latino population in the US.

Prior to coming to the NFL, Marissa served as a Client Solutions Director at the Latinum Network, consulting with over 20 brands on their multicultural strategies, including the NFL, NBA, ESPN, The Walt Disney Company, Hershey’s, and Univision.  Before Latinum, Marissa spent six years in brand management at Procter & Gamble, where she learned the brand building fundamentals working on powerhouse brands like Tide and Gillette.

Marissa graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS from Cornell University.  Since college, she has lived in Cincinnati, OH, Boston, MA, Washington DC, and now resides in Manhattan, NY.  In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, traveling, watching sports, exercising, and spending time with friends and family. She also volunteers as a ‘Big Sister’ in the NYC Big Brothers Big Sisters Program.  Marissa would like to thank her family – her eternal source of inspiration to succeed personally and professionally.

What you'll learn

• Marissa's journey to pursue her American dream
• How she crafted a career that landed her at a dream job at the NFL
• What she learned at Procter & Gamble
• Why she chose to work in Hispanic marketing
• The white space to create best-in-class Hispanic brand marketing
• The barriers that are holding back brand investment in the Hispanic market and how to overcome it.
• How she landed her dream job as the NFL's director of Hispanic fan engagement.
• Her approach to success

Resources & Links

• Marissa Fernandez on Linkedin
• nfl.com en espanol

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