Nelson Fernandez, founder and CEO, Crosby Street Consultants, is an experienced corporate brand and public affairs agency executive.

Mr. Fernandez advises top management, across multiple sectors. His expertise includes executive leadership communication, brand and marketing communication, issue management, crisis management, thought leadership, stakeholder engagement, CSR planning and communication and strategic planning.

Mr. Fernandez has worked with senior leaders across food, consumer goods, health care, professional services and the social service sectors. He launched McCormick’s vision and values framework working closely with McCormick’s CEO and his leadership team and led global corporate positioning work for Mars, Inc. across the company’s food, pet food and chocolate business segments. Mr. Fernandez also developed Suntory’s corporate social responsibility partnership strategy for the US, successfully aligning senior teams in the US and Japan.

Mr. Fernandez has also counseled the Ford Foundation’s executive team on issue management strategies and messaging and provided external positioning and brand communication counsel to the Nature Conservancy.

Prior to founding CSC, Mr. Fernandez was chair, APCO North America, and former co-founder and managing director, APCO New York. Mr. Fernandez also worked at Burson-Marsteller for 12 years in the North America and Latin America regions in the healthcare, public affairs and corporate practices. He supported clients ranging from Altria, and Kraft to Pfizer, IBM, Accenture, and Pharmacia.

Mr. Fernandez has provided pro bono services to NY-based nonprofits and also serves on the board of Xavier High School, a Jesuit college preparatory school in New York City.

Mr. Fernandez holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and a bachelor’s degree in English, summa cum laude, from Amherst College. He is fluent in Spanish.