Five to Watch
By Claude Solnik

Nicole Bardsley
Director of Client Services
The EGC Group

Nicole Bardsley joined the EGC Group as an account manager in 1997 after a career in graphic design, marketing and advertising. As director of client services, she's in charge of regional and national clients such as Sterling Optical and Brother International. She also led a program in which clients pay based on online leads and another system that allows franchisees to customize ads and point-of-purchase materials on the Web.

Kathleen Caputi
Account Executive
Epoch 5 Public Relations

After more than a decade managing various communications programs at Cablevision Systems Corp. and leading her own consulting business, Kathleen Caputi joined Epoch 5 in 2003 as an account executive. Her accounts include Daniel Gale Real Estate; T. Weiss Realty Corp; William F. Collins Architects; Pryor & Mandelup and Project GRAD Long Island. Caputi, who also aids the company's work for Forchelli, Curto, Schwarz, Mineo, Carlino & Cohn, Gershow Recycling and King Kullen, is in charge of Epoch 5's own PR efforts as director of business development.

Nicole Starr Castillo
Partner
WordHampton Public Relations

In the world of restaurants and wineries, reputation rules. And beyond good cuisine, good PR is the lifeblood of the business. At WordHampton Public Relations, which focuses on East End restaurants, Nicole Starr Castillo is a key player. Starr Castillo, an East Hampton resident, joined WordHampton in 1997 and rose to become a partner in 2003. She handles such East End staples as Bedell Cellars and Corey Creek Vineyard, Southampton Publick House, Morton's steakhouse, Pacific East, Almondito and Tierra Mar. She also helped launch the Hamptons Wine and Food Festival.

Jodi O'Sullivan
Vice President
New Business Development
Harrison Leifer DiMarco

Jodi O'Sullivan brings a touch of Madison Avenue to Long Island. The Rockville Centre resident worked at New York City agencies such as Wells, Rich, Green, Grey Ad-vertising, Lintas: Marketing Com-munications and Griffin Bacal. She has spent more than 20 years in advertising, with clients that in-cluded Canon, IBM, Olympus and Sharp. In March, O'Sullivan was named vice president of new business development at Harrison Leifer DiMarco in Rockville Centre.

Hilary JM Topper
President, CEO
HJMT Communications

Hilary Topper founded HJMT Communications in 1992 after working at giants such as Ruder Finn, Hill, Holliday, Connors, Com-piles Inc. and Ogilvy & Mather. She was in charge of accounts for Jell-O, GLAD Wrap Bags, Prestone II antifreeze and Dove Beauty Bar.

Her PR and marketing firm also has special events and graphic design divisions. Topper also is known for her involvement in not-for-profits. She was the co-dinner chair of UJA-Federation corporate dinner on Long Island in 2004 and organized Golf to Give, in which she donated proceeds to both the Girl Scouts of Nassau County and the American Lung Association.

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