Designer. Event producer. Community builder. For nearly three decades, Nanding Mendez has shaped the way Filipino Americans gather, celebrate, and see themselves in America.
Fernando "Nanding" Mendez was born and raised in the Philippines, where his early career set an ambition that has never left him. In 1976, he became the youngest art director ever appointed at Philippine Advertising Counselors — a record that still stands. He trained alongside the country's best designers and advertisers at a moment when Filipino creative work was finding its identity in a global market.
When he immigrated to the United States, he brought that ambition with him. Settling in New Jersey, he built a career in American design and advertising while staying close to the Filipino American communities of the tristate area. One of his early American commissions — designing the official seal of Billings, Montana — remains among the first such civic honors given to a Filipino American. He then founded Special Edition Magazine, a platform for Filipino American voices and businesses, years before the internet made such reach possible.
In 1996, he did something no one had tried at scale on the U.S. East Coast: he organized a Filipino cultural expo large enough to matter. The first Fiesta in America was, in retrospect, a proof of concept. It proved the audience existed, the vendors were ready, and the community was hungry for a stage that was entirely its own. He has been building that stage ever since.
In 2004, Nanding created the People's Ball and its companion Empowerment Awards — a black-tie gala that gave the Filipino American community its first formal recognition event of this scale. He designed it to do something specific: to hold up Filipino American leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers in front of their own community, not as an aside to mainstream recognition, but as the main event. The Ball has now recognized more than 160 honorees across 21 ceremonies.
In 2022, he launched Pasko in America, bringing the Filipino Christmas — the world's longest Christmas celebration — to a venue format that Filipino American families could experience together. It completed the three-event calendar that Philippine Fiesta USA now produces each year.
Through all three events, Nanding has personally overseen every dimension of the organization: the branding, the stage design, the vendor curation, the awardee selection, and the creative direction. Philippine Fiesta USA reflects his belief that a celebration designed with care and executed with professionalism is itself a form of respect — for the community it serves and the culture it carries forward.
I wanted to build the room where Filipino America gathers — not as a guest in someone else's event, but as the host.
Awardee announcements, performer news, casting calls, and everything happening across our three events — straight to your inbox.