Fernando Machado is a global marketer with a passion for growing brands and businesses. With more than 200 Lions in Cannes (12 GPs, including 2 Titanium GPs), 24 D&AD Yellow Pencils, 1 D&AD Black Pencil, and 2 Grand Effies in North America, Machado is known for pushing the creative boundaries to drive business growth.

Machado joined Activision Blizzard as CMO in April of 2021. He is now responsible for the marketing initiatives of some of the most exciting titles in the gaming industry (Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Candy Crush, among others).

Machado spent 7 years at Restaurant Brands International (Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons) prior to Activision. His focus was to infuse the brands with purpose (incl. sustainability), improving product quality, modernizing design, and inspiring the organization around tech, digital and brand development. Under Machado’s leadership, Burger King became Client of the Year at the D&AD in 2016 and 2020, Creative Marketer of the Year in Cannes 2017, Client of the Year at the One Show 2018 and 2020, Advertiser of the Year at the Clio Awards 2018, 2019, and 2021, and Creative Brand of the Year in Cannes 2019 and 2021. Machado led campaigns such as “McWhopper”, “Google Home of the Whopper”, “Whopper Detour”, “Stevenage Challenge”, and “Moldy Whopper”.

Prior to joining Restaurant Brands International, Machado worked for 18 years at Unilever. Starting as an intern, he moved up the ranks working different product categories and brands, including Dove where he led the groundbreaking "Beauty Sketches" (Titanium GP in 2013).

Machado was recognized by Adweek as Grand Brand Genius (2013 and 2018 - only person to ever win twice), by Business Insider as top 10 people transforming advertising, by the AD Club of NY as Marketer of the Year (2017), by Business Insider as top 10 most innovative CMOs (2017, 2018 and #1 in 2019), by AdAge as top 50 most creative people in the business (2017), by Forbes as Top 100 Most Creative Minds in Business, by Fast Company as Top 100 Most Creative People in Business (2019), and by AdAge as CMO of the year (2020).

Marketing, Advertising, Food, Food industry, Business Leadership, Business, Branding, Corporate Strategy, Leadership, Strategic Leadership