Capabilities > Fractional Brand Leadership
Leadership That Feels Like Care, Not Command
Fractional Brand Leadership
Someone left. The search is taking longer than anyone expected. The team is overextended and overwhelmed. What you need isn’t just direction — it’s a steady presence that can move initiatives forward without missing a beat. An effective, experienced leader who can jump in and take the reigns without making anyone feel small for needing help.
A Matriarc brand director isn't just another top-down manager. Our mission is to level-up your entire department, from the C-suite to the roster of front-line creators, doers, and managers. Within the first week, you'll be asking yourself why you didn't bring us in sooner.
A Steadying Presence
We steady teams running on deadlines and adrenaline, so ambitious, complex work makes it from kickoff to delivery — on time, on budget, without burning anyone out along the way.
Collaborative, attuned, equally at ease in a small working session or a room of a hundred.
Deep Knowledge & Expertise
Our team comes from the University of Chicago, BCG, global pharma, and everywhere in between — backgrounds with real academic rigor, built on years in the trenches at some of the most demanding organizations in the world. Expect sharper decisions, faster movement, and work your organization is genuinely proud of.
Breakthrough Mentorship
Your people are your greatest asset. Whether you have a full team in place or lean on contractors, we know how to see talent clearly and help it grow toward what the organization actually needs — people who report feeling seen, motivated, and engaged in ways they hadn’t experienced before.
How We Work
Matriarc isn’t one playbook applied to every client. Each of us brings a different lens — brand and leadership transformation, investor-grade strategic rigor, deep behavioral and brand insight.
Sometimes that means one of us leads the engagement directly. Sometimes it means two or three of us work together, bringing complementary expertise to the same room. Either way, you’re getting someone who’s already done this — at scale, under real pressure — not someone learning on your time.
Meet your Directors.
Matriarc draws on an accomplished bench of senior strategists, brand leaders, and marketing executives who’ve run point on major brands before, owned their own businesses, and hail from some of the most prestigious institutions in the World.
Dee Heffernan
Principal Advisor, Branding & Impact
Fractional Director
Dee Heffernan founded Matriarc to bring senior brand and leadership expertise to organizations navigating real change — the kind that requires more than a deck and a deadline. Her work blends sharp strategic thinking with a deep belief that brand, culture, and leadership are never separate problems; they’re one.
Dee’s functional background includes brand strategy, graphic design/creative direction, and entrepreneurship (beginning early as the daughter of multiple generations of entrepreneurs).
She is also a TEDx speaker, known for How to Stop Highlight Reel Living, and her REAL™ Leadership Series.
Dee is an Honor’s graduate of The University of Chicago, where she played point and shooting guard for the Women’s Basketball Team.
She has served on the LGBTQ Alumni Board of Directors and is active in the Alumni mentorship community.
Jennifer Alexander Monzón
Executive Advisor, Strategy & Transformation
Fractional Director
Jennifer Alexander Monzón is a strategic advisor who works at the intersection of transformation, alignment, and organizational clarity.
Her work is rooted in a rare blend of systems thinking, operational precision, and intuitive insight—bringing both clarity and care to the way individuals lead and organizations evolve.
With 20+ years of experience spanning investment management at Citadel, strategy consulting at BCG, and the founding of mission-driven ventures like Chapín Coffee, Jennifer offers a trifecta of investor-grade analysis, cross-functional leadership, and entrepreneurial insight.
Jennifer holds a BA from Northwestern University and an MBA from Chicago Booth.
Siobhán Neely
Executive Advisor, Brand Strategy & Behavioral Insight
Fractional Director
Siobhán has spent over a decade developing marketing strategy at the intersection of healthcare and human behavior.
She’s led marketing strategy for a women’s health portfolio and a U.S. rare disease drug launch, with a personal and professional mission centered on inclusivity, representation, and access.
Earlier in her career, she led strategy for an award-winning sexual health campaign and taught a course on DEI — work she’s carried into every engagement since.
Siobán holds a Master’s in Advertising and Account Planning from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Florida, and is now extending that background into formal training as a medical anthropologist focused on mental health.
That combination shows up directly in her work: ethnographic, culturally grounded research that gets beneath what audiences say to what’s actually driving them.
The REAL™ Framework
The REAL™ Framework is our signature strategic tool for amplifying brand authenticity and sustainability.
We use it with organizations of all sizes, from startups and foundations to global enterprises navigating growth, change, or reinvention.