Ms. Fernandez’s expertise spans all aspects of restaurant and franchise operations and development, consumer product development, and brand licensing. Ms. Fernandez brings to the board room multi-national experience in heavily regulated markets, including international mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Her deep experience comes from assignments as supporting M&A and Intellectual Property counsel for the $50B acquisition of Alcon, working with federal regulators in over 20 countries. She has worked in over 140 countries establishing franchise partnerships, licensing programs, distribution and supply chains for both food and drug companies. Her storied career as counsel and in executive leadership has provided her the experience to guide companies in growing new revenue streams, adeptly steering them around regulatory hurdles and other risk.
Her business acumen is at the heart of her robust consulting practice at the Fernandez Company, a consulting firm working with government, investors and companies providing expert guidance in franchise programs, licensing opportunities and developing consumer product lines. Ms. Fernandez is also the CEO and Founder of Full Course, a restaurant development and investment firm which incubates and accelerates emerging fast casual restaurant brands.
As a co-founder and investor in Origin Development Group, Ms. Fernandez has been both a multi-unit franchisee and brand developer, serving as a strategic growth partner for companies such as Chicken Salad Chick®. Before forming her own companies, she served as General Counsel for FOCUS Brands, parent company of brands such as Carvel®, Cinnabon® and Moe’s Southwest Grill®. Ms. Fernandez had responsibility for franchising administration of six brands while at FOCUS Brands, directed dozens of international deals, leading a team of over twenty people and overseeing franchise relations for over 4,400 units. Prior to joining FOCUS Brands, she was the Associate General Counsel and Global Trademark Counsel for CIBA VISION®, a division of Novartis, where she was part of an elite team that successfully launched the company’s first new contact lens product in over a decade. The highly-awarded DAILIES® Total1® lens witnessed multi-national success, sales in excess of 3x forecast and gained back critical market share.
Ms. Fernandez is a frequent speaker in the areas of licensing, organic business growth and franchise operations around the country, sought after for her ease with audiences, humor and candor. An active leader amongst her peers, Ms. Fernandez was awarded the Section Award of Achievement as the 2015- 16 Chair of the State Bar of Georgia Intellectual Property Section. A passionate advocate in the fight against hunger, she also serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Ms. Fernandez was honored as the 2015 Woman of the Year for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Atlanta. She is an alumna of the Emory University School of Law, where she served as an Adjunct Professor of Trademarks. Ms. Fernandez obtained her MBA from Emory’s Goizueta Business School, with a focus on Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Calling Atlanta home for nearly two decades, she currently resides with her family in North Sandy Springs near the Chattahoochee River.
