NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gregg Castano, who has played a key role in Business Wire's international expansion and whose analytical skills have helped identify promising new business opportunities, has been named president, Cathy Baron Tamraz, chief executive officer, said today.

Castano, most recently co-chief operating officer, has spent 24 years at Business Wire. He began his career as a newsroom coordinator, and has assumed progressively more responsible roles as he worked his way up the organizational ladder. Since his 2006 appointment to the co-COO position, Castano has focused his attention on sales strategy and financial analysis.

With Castano's promotion, Phyllis Dantuono becomes Business Wire's sole chief operating officer.

Castano has been instrumental in shaping Business Wire's global sales footprint. During the past decade, Business Wire has opened up offices in London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney and Toronto, while establishing a network of reciprocal sales offices throughout Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

"Gregg has played a major role in Business Wire's growth and success during his near quarter-century of service to the company," Tamraz noted. "In addition to charting Business Wire's sales expansion strategy, Gregg has been responsible for recruiting many key sales executives to the Business Wire team, as well as identifying key business development opportunities. Perhaps most important, Gregg is calm under pressure and a consensus-builder, qualities that are certain to serve him well in his new role."

Castano's appointment was announced at Business Wire's International sales meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Tamraz previously held the dual title of president and CEO.

An alumnus of Fordham University, Castano lives in Wilton, Conn., with his wife, Kathleen, and their three daughters.

About Business Wire

Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is utilized by tens of thousands of member companies and organizations worldwide to functionally enhance and communicate investor relations and public relations content to target audiences. As a recognized disclosure service in the United States, Canada and a dozen European countries, Business Wire facilitates the simultaneous flow of market-moving press releases from corporations to financial markets and their audiences, including regulatory authorities, media, investors, financial information systems and consumer news services. Business Wire also handles XBRL tagging, document formatting and regulatory filing into EDGAR, SEDAR, FSA and other systems.

Communications professionals turn to Business Wire to optimize and issue press releases, photos and multimedia to news organizations, journalists, trade publications, search engines, and individuals, with full-text posting to web sites, online services and databases. A range of distribution options enables members to target by geography, industry, news theme and audience demographics.

Founded in 1961, Business Wire has dual headquarters in San Francisco and New York, with 30 bureaus in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Paris, Frankfurt, London, Brussels, Tokyo, Toronto and Sydney and reciprocal offices throughout the world. Business Wire's patented NX data platform supports XML, XHTML and XBRL code that enhances news release interactivity, social media sharing and search engine optimization. More information about Business Wire and its services is located on its website at www.BusinessWire.com.

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