Tim Hawthorne, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Hawthorne Direct, is considered by many to be the "Father of the Modern Infomercial". His intensive experience in broadcast television as a producer, director, writer, and editor has given him a vision of what DRTV can be. His thought leadership prompted Rapp and Collins to dub him "King of the Infomercial" in their marketing book, The Great Marketing Turn Around. In September 2006, Tim was awarded the ERA's Lifetime Achievement Award. Hawthorne Direct employs 75 professionals in Research, Creative, Production, Media Buying/Analysis, Internet Marketing, Back-End and Integrated Marketing Management. Tim and his team bill over $150 million annually and have won over 400 creative awards. Past and current clients include Time-Life, Apple, Nissan, Discover Card, U.S. Navy, Nikon, Braun, Orange Glo and Oreck among many others.
Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Operating Officer, joined forces several
years ago with her father, Tim Hawthorne, as a Senior Account Executive. Today, she heads the next
generation of Hawthorne Direct, and has strategically positioned the company to lead the new
marketing revolution. Her leadership role involves fostering service-oriented relationships with
the company’s high profile clients, helping them to envision, create and execute powerful advertising
campaigns that build brands and ignite consumers. To date, her clients have included 3M
(Command, Post-it, Scotch-Brite), Armor All, Audible, Black & Decker, Carbonite, Hamilton Beach,
Home Advisor, Hoover, PETA, Remington, Transamerica, and more. Jessica is based in Los Angeles,
the company's headquarters, along with Hawthorne Direct's creative, media and production teams.
Prior to joining Hawthorne Direct, Jessica had been a successful television literary agent with
William Morris Endeavor (formerly Endeavor), one of Hollywood’s leading, 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.
Jessica holds a Magna Cum Laude MBA degree with a double emphasis in Management and Marketing from
Loyola Marymount University and a Cum Laude Bachelors degree from the School of Arts and Architecture
at UCLA.
Mark Ratner, Sr. Vice President – Marketing Services, is a pioneer in direct response marketing and an expert in using offer development/testing to boost campaign performance and profitability. He oversaw the development of TimeTrack™, the first and most sophisticated software for analyzing direct response media and providing clients with online, real-time media information. Mark has led the account teams of some of the most successful DRTV campaigns in history. His clients include Nissan, Discover Card, Apple, Aero Products, U.S. Navy, Oreck, One World Live, Telebrands, Bose, and Jenny Craig.
Bob Moore, Senior Vice President - Account Management/Business Affairs, is a 28-year veteran of the DRTV industry. Having worked at Hawthorne Direct since its inception as Hawthorne Communications in 1986, he has held a variety of positions, including Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and VP-Integrated Marketing. Bob is a proven strategist with superior offer development and financial analysis skills and has led numerous successful marketing strategies and campaigns for clients that include Time-Life, Hamilton Beach, ABCMouse, Carbonite, Audible.com, Transamerica, Remington Products and Armor All. Prior to joining Hawthorne Direct, Bob held financial and general management positions at General Electric, Mid-South Concerts, and Fairfield Television Enterprises, where he and Tim Hawthorne managed the generation of $50 million in sales with "The Millionaire Maker" infomercial campaign.
Gene Silverman, Vice President - Marketing, is responsible for ensuring that each campaign is impeccably managed on behalf of Hawthorne's clients. Gene has been recognized as a leader in the direct response industry since 1989, has been quoted in Time magazine, and has spoken at various conferences as an expert on DRTV. Gene is a regular contributor for Electronic Retailer magazine.
Gene was President of Hawthorne Direct before stepping out on his own as an industry consultant for Time Life and QVC. He has worked on highly successful DRTV campaigns such as Penn Foster, J.G. Wentworth, Transamerica, United Healthcare, and numerous Time-Life music and video products. He has extensive knowledge in managing every aspect of direct response television campaigns and in integrating electronic and traditional marketing channels.
Karla Crawford Kerr, Director of Business Development, evaluates products for DRTV viability, handles public relations, assists with trade show and event planning, and performs other marketing and sales duties for prospective and existing clients. Her clients include Applica, Kaz Honeywell, Nikon, U.S. Navy, Clorox, Procter & Gamble, RotoZip Tool Corporation, Braun, Oreck, and Aero. Karla serves on the Direct Marketing Association Broadcast Council Operating Board and was a member of the DMA Broadcast Council Operating Committee and co-chair of its programming for two years. She was named the Volunteer of the Year in 2004 by the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA), chaired its Education Committee for four years, and has served as an ERA Awards judge since 2005. She is a regular anchor on the Hawthorne Videoactive Report™.
Senior Vice President of Media/Account Management George Leon has worked in every aspect of the DRTV industry for the past 18 years. He has strong experience in agency account management, media analysis, and effective team management, and in creating strong media relationships, particularly in the Los Angeles and New York media outlets. Launching his career at Williams Television Time in Los Angeles, George worked on account analysis for clients such as Kent & Spiegel, Phillips Electronics, DirecTV, and M&M Mars. Later, he was media director of National Media, Inc. In 2000, George co-founded Gold Mountain Media, Inc., a successful DR media agency whose clients included T-Fal Cookware, Body by Jake, Sylmark, Product Partners, Magic Bullet and Alchemy's Six Week Body Makeover. In 2008, George launched CIELO Media Management, Inc., focusing on a hybrid of English and Spanish Long and Short Form media campaigns.
Mary Papp, Vice President of Media Account Management, oversees the development and execution of all client media strategies. She also manages teleservices, fulfillment, and web integration, and leads the media account management team. Her clients include Bose, 3M, Clorox, HAAN, KAZ Honeywell, Oreck, Time-Life, Wagner and OWL. Mary has held numerous positions at Hawthorne Direct since 1996, including new business development, Manager of Media Operations, assistant to the Vice President of Media, Media Account Manager, Senior Media Account Manager, and then Director. She previously was a marketing product manager for a manufacturing company.
John Pucci, Senior Vice President - Executive Creative Director in Hawthorne Direct's Los Angeles office, is an award-winning creative director with a wealth of talent and experience working on major brands from both agency and client perspectives. Most recently, Pucci led a team of writers, art directors and motion graphic artists, creating Direct Response Television Long Form and Short Form at Euro RSCG Edge, where his clients included The Humane Society, LifeLock, Quicken Loans and ProFlowers. As former Executive Creative Director for both RAPP and Publicis, Pucci led strategy, creative concepting and execution for AAA, Bank of America, DIRECTV, Neutrogena, Toyota and Nestlé, among other clients. John honed his agency skills at DDB, TracyLocke and Saatchi & Saatchi while building his in-house experience with brands such as E! Networks, Mattel and Disney.
Jennifer Echternach, Media Account Manager, recently joined the Hawthorne Direct media team working in its Portland, Oregon office. She previously was Media Account Executive with R2C for almost five years, leading clients through each step of planning, executing and analyzing their campaigns. Jennifer has also worked for Koopman Ostbo and Bradshaw Advertising, where she assisted Account Managers with project management, production coordination and client relations. She also coordinated the trafficking and media relations of client ads, and supported the Public Relations department. Her accounts have included Humana, Humana One, Philips, Electrolux, Corinthian Colleges, Kroger and Chase.
