Profile

Georgiana Francisco: Company Founder Georgiana Francisco has over 25 years of public relations and marketing experience, 10 of which were in the food, wine, and hospitality industries. She has provided counsel for some of the leading consumer product companies in the world, including Best Foods, Paramount Communications, Westin and Four Seasons hotel corporations and the State of Pennsylvania. Widely known and respected by journalists both at home and abroad, Georgiana has designed award-winning PR strategies and enhanced profits for her clients through her long-standing relationship with the press.

Prior to founding her own firm in 1998, Georgiana served as Vice President/Director of Public Relations for Gillespie, a $276M marketing firm, designing strategies for such accounts as Elizabeth Arden Salons; Cellular One; Just Born, Inc., the makers of megabrands Hot Tamales, Mike and Ikes, and Peeps; and SL Waber, the latter two earning her the Silver Anvil Award (the Oscar® of the PR industry) for best new product launch.

Georgiana relocated to the east coast from Los Angeles in 1995, where she was Communications Director for Miss Universe, Inc., promoting the live CBS telecasts of the Miss Universe, Miss USA and, Miss Teen USA pageants.

Claims to PR fame include morphing the Beverly Wilshire Hotel into the Pretty Woman Hotel when the film, which took place there, proved a mega-hit; her strategy garnered the now world-famous hotel media coverage equal to $1M in ad dollars, a stop on the Hollywood Bus Tour, and a replica on the MGM Studios tour; and globally branding the little known gaming manufacturing company AC Coin & Slot through world-wide press coverage, including New York Times, USA Today, on CNN and international television shows as well as on the Internet. Other gaming clients have included Trump 29 in Palms Springs, CA, Oklahoma’s Shawnee Casino, and Montana’s Glacier Peaks Casino.

As Director of Public Relations for the noted Century Plaza Hotel and Tower, she hosted the world press, the Kings and Queens of Spain and Denmark, the President of China, the Duke and Duchess of York, and President and Mrs. Reagan, with whom she became good friends. She also acted as the hotel’s locations manager for many films, including Die Hard and Indecent Proposal, and was Westin’s West Coast PR contact for hotels in Los Angeles and Hawaii.

Georgiana also opened a West Coast office for New York-based PR firm Middleton Picower, promoting Four Seasons Hotels’ West Coast properties, Nikko Hotels, The Pierre in New York and London’s Inn on the Park.

Having served as public information officer for the US Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC, she had a two-year stint as a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and also held the position of legislative liaison on Capitol Hill, writing testimony for the Secretary of Agriculture.

Recognized by both her peers and the community, Georgiana has been honored with the Superior Service Award by President Jimmy Carter for creating the first consumer information television series for the Department of Agriculture, selected one of the Top 10 Women of the Year for her public relations efforts and community service by the Chambers of Commerce of Los Angeles and Century City, and is listed in Who’s Who in American Business.

She has taught at the University of California at Long Beach and has worked steadily on behalf of numerous charities, including Big Sisters of Los Angeles, Catholic Charities, The American Red Cross, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Georgetown University Hospital and served on the Women’s Board of New Jersey’s Cooper Hospital. She is a co-founder of the Garden State Film Festival and the Joan Gaeta Lung Cancer Foundation.

Georgiana holds a Master’s degree from the Catholic University of America in Speech and Dramatic Arts, during which time she acted throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe with the National Shakespeare Company and the USO, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Education from Good Counsel College. She has also earned credits toward a second Master’s degree in Journalism from American University.

A journalist in her own right, Georgiana is a contributor to New Jersey Monthly magazine, among other publications, travel blogs, and myriad newsletters.