Our Leadership Team

Mary Planding

CEO & Founder

A native New Yorker, Mary transplanted to Silicon Valley to come work for Apple Computer after earning her stripes as a marketing VP in the publishing world where she had founded a successful educational software division.

For the past 30 years, she's worked for several Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and mid-sized firms where she's added more than $200M per year to their bottom lines through innovative marketing programs that saved money and helped generate sales. 

"Working at Apple taught me that marketing is useless unless it delivers results," says Mary, "which is why I am relentless about getting my clients to be explicit and detailed about their goals and driving my team to execute marketing that achieves those goals. When we collectively focus our attention, dedicate resources, and team up to do great work, amazing things happen." 

Her experience marketing companies of different sizes gives her a unique perspective — it lets her take the best of the best and apply lessons learned, regardless of a company's size and its resources. "There's always a way to scale up, or down, successfully," says Mary. "The key is to be open to the possibility and not stay set in our ways of doing things. Experimentation and continuous learning is the key to staying ahead of the competition, no matter what industry you're in."

To see Mary's complete CV, visit her LinkedIn profile.

WavenDean Fernandes

Principal, Business Development

WavenDean Fernandes has more than 25 years of experience in business development, client services and management roles working with technology, graphic design, branding, retail design, marketing and digital development agencies. His background includes eight years of entrepreneurial experience founding Mana Brand Marketing (boutique brand marketing and design firm) serving clients primarily in Hawaii and California, and 12 years with prominent traditional branding firms (Landor, Fitch, Liquid Agency) and interactive agencies (Studio Archetype, Sapient, iXL, Liquid Thinking, Nurun) prior to founding Mana. 

WavenDean also worked on the client side at Amdahl, Sun Microsystems and six years at Apple Computer in the creative services and marketing communications group before moving over to the agency side with Landor in San Francisco. 

His experience includes working on national and international brands such as: FedEx, Starbucks, Xerox, Ocean Spray, Visa, Intel, Microsoft, Plantronics, PaperMate, and Bradesco.

To see Waven's complete CV, visit his LinkedIn profile.