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Hawthorne-Castro, Chief Operating Officer for Hawthorne Direct, a full service brand response advertising agency, will be featured on the panel entitled "Women Entrepreneurs." The session will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 23, during Digital Hollywood's fall 2013 event. The panel will be held from 10:45 a.m. to noon at the Ritz Carlton Hotel's Ballroom Terrace in Marina del Rey, Calif.

The full title for this session is "Women Entrepreneurs: Building the Brand, the Personal and the Company Identity - Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling." Joining Hawthorne-Castro for this session will be panelists:

Silvia Davi, Vice President and Head of Strategic Corporate Communications and Marketing, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)
Leena Pendharkar, Film Director, Raspberry Magic
Saundra Pelletier, CEO, WomanCare Global
Stephanie Moewe, Founder and President, PassionTag
Debra Fine, Partner, Fine Line Companies/Foundation
Linda Sherman, CEO/Co-Founder, The Courage Group, Moderator

This panel is being presented as the "Women's Entertainment and Technology Summit," within the fall 2013 Digital Hollywood conference. The summit has been designed to enhance executive and creative leadership for women who work across all areas of media, entertainment, marketing and technology.

For more information, please see: http://www.digitalhollywood.com/13DHFall/DH13Fl-Wed10.html

About Jessica Hawthorne-Castro:
Jessica Hawthorne-Castro was named COO of Hawthorne Direct in 2013. She first joined the company in 2007 as an Account Executive. During the course of the past six years, she worked her way up the company's corporate ladder, later becoming a Senior Account Executive, Director of Client Services, Director of Client Services & Operations, and culminating with the title of Vice President of Operations & Client Services.

Throughout her tenure with Hawthorne Direct, she has fostered service-oriented relationships with the company's high profile clients, helping them to envision, create and execute their advertising plans. Her strategy is renowned for its hands-on and highly responsive approach. To date, her clients have included 3M (Command, Post-it, Scotch-Brite), Armor All, Black & Decker, Remington, Transamerica, PETA, Carbonite, Audible, Hoover, and more.

Prior to joining Hawthorne Direct, Hawthorne-Castro had been a successful television literary agent with William Morris Endeavor (formerly Endeavor), one of Hollywood's top, full service talent agencies representing performers, writers, directors and producers for television and feature films. As the agent for an impressive list of WME's top TV talent, she identified and negotiated opportunities for shows airing on all major broadcast and cable television networks. She also packaged key elements necessary to develop TV shows, working regularly with executives from CBS, Fox, NBC, HBO, USA, Bravo, and others. In this capacity, Hawthorne-Castro assisted the creators of a number of top rated television programs, including "Entourage," "The Office," "Heroes," "24" and "Law and Order," to name a few.

Hawthorne-Castro holds a Magna Cum Laude MBA degree from Loyola Marymount University, with a double emphasis in Management and Marketing. She also holds a Cum Laude Bachelors degree from UCLA's School of Arts and Architecture. She and her husband, James Castro, an investment banker with Grief & Company, live in West Hollywood, Calif., with their new son, Braden.

About Hawthorne Direct:
Hawthorne Direct is a full service brand response advertising agency, specializing in strategic planning, creative development, production, media planning, buying and analytics, and campaign management for integrated marketing campaigns. With nearly 30 years of proven excellence in brand response, the agency combines persuasive brand messaging with best-in-class analytic systems to create accountable, high performance advertising campaigns.

Hawthorne Direct has developed successful award-winning campaigns for brands such as 3M, Armor All, Bose, Black & Decker, Hamilton Beach, Pella, SanDisk, Transamerica, United Healthcare, and more.

The agency is headquartered in Los Angeles, with the founding office located in the Midwest. Hawthorne Direct was founded in 1986 by Timothy R. Hawthorne, who serves as Chairman/CEO. Hawthorne's daughter, Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, today holds the post of COO. For more information, please visit www.hawthornedirect.com and also http://www.linkedin.com/company/hawthorne-direct?trk=top_nav_home