GATES MILLS, Ohio, Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Some of the
 nation's top sports marketing executives -- people who've worked with some
 of the biggest names in sports including Brady Quinn, Tiger Woods, Venus
 and Serena Williams, Joe Montana, Eli and Peyton Manning, Maria Sharapova,
 Muhammad Ali and Charles Barkley -- recently pooled all that expertise and
 converged on Hawken's Upper School campus for a summer internship program
 for both current students and graduates.
     The students, who are overseeing the sales and merchandising, game
 operations, public relations, communications and marketing for Walton
 Weekend, the school's grand opening celebration of its new $1.95 million
 stadium, are primarily being led by former IMG Senior Corporate VP
 Stephanie Tolleson and Buffy Filippell, founder of TeamWork Online, an
 online executive search firm that recruits executives for the NBA, NFL, NHL
 and MLB, but have had a cadre of other executives visit to help them.
     Throughout the summer, top football agent Tom Condon; Peter Johnson,
 the former IMG CEO of Sports and Entertainment; Paul Garofolo, former VP
 and General Manager of the Cleveland Force and current President and CEO of
 Signature Sports and Marketing, Inc.; IMG Senior VP and Director of
 Worldwide Fashion Event Operations Jeff Orloff; Alan Zucker, IMG Senior VP
 of Athlete Sales and Marketing and Senior VP of Business Development Group;
 sports media coaching consultant Lisa Bercu-Levine; IMG consultant Terri
 Bell; and Mike Rielly, former Senior VP and Managing Director of IMG Japan
 all lent their time to offer advice for hosting a successful weekend as
 well as tips on how to succeed in the competitive world of sports
 marketing.
     "You have to be inquisitive, you have to be aggressive, you have to be
 the smart guy out there and you have to want it more and work harder than
 any one else," Tolleson told the interns in a meeting with Condon.
     "So that's why this summer, we're trying to expose you all to these
 things."
     Hawken School is an independent, nonsectarian, coed day school of
 approximately 960 students, grades pre-K through 12, located on two
 campuses in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. Founded in 1915, Hawken is
 recognized as one of the premier college preparatory schools in the nation
 with a diverse student body participating in a challenging program of
 academics, arts, and athletics that prepares them to meet the challenges of
 tomorrow's world.
 
 

SOURCE Hawken School