Marianne Fernagut

After secondary school, I stood at a crossroads: political science or bioscience engineering. I chose engineering. I could always read a book about politics later, but not about biological sciences.

At university, something started to shift. I became less interested in the science itself, and more in what people do with it. How they understand it. Or don’t.

Then I left for Scotland. I remember the first time I stood in the Highlands. Wind, space, nothing polished. I loved it instantly. It was freeing in a way I had not expected. That period did more than broaden my horizon. It made me curious about the world beyond my own context, the mainland. After travelling a year in Latin America, I went into studying international relations and conflict management.

I started working with organisations such as the United Nations and the OECD. Important work, serious topics. Environmental issues, development, policy. But I kept drifting towards a different role in the room. Not just contributing to the content, but shaping how it was told. Finding the angle. Making it land.

And that is also where the frustration started. We were producing strong work. But too often, it stayed within a small circle. It was not always clear who would pick it up, or what it would change.

I wanted to see things move. So I moved to the private sector still working on environmental and sustainability. The difference was immediate. Less hesitation, more action. Ideas did not stay in documents. They were launched and improved. I learned how organisations actually make decisions, how they align, and how communication can help drive alignment and uptake within and outside th organisation.

From then on, I leaned into communication fully. Using it to create clarity, to build internal alignment, to position organisations externally.

While I loved fast-pace decision-making, I got fed up with profit targets, I moved back towards the international policy arena, this time through communication agencies working on European Campaigns. The Brexit just happened.

That world suited me immediately. Fast, demanding, full of energy. I loved working with creative people who could turn complex ideas into something tangible almost overnight.

And I recognised a pattern I had seen before. Strong policies, real ambition, but messages that do not always land. A gap between what is decided and what people actually understand or act on. That gap is where I work.

I move between Brussels and the Member States, between policy and practice. I help shape messages, choose the right channels, and strip things back until they make sense to real people in real contexts.

Because in the end, I am not interested in communication for the sake of it. I want to see things land.