Cathy Castaneda leverages prior experience leading corporate strategy and market research teams to assist clients with their important strategic marketing decisions. During her more than 15 years at HawkPartners, she has worked with clients in a range of industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail, and healthcare.
Cathy is adept at applying a wide range of research techniques to address client’s most pressing strategic issues. Cathy often works with clients in complex, intermediated markets to understand multiple layers of decision making in support of product and marketing development. Cathy’s expertise includes managing complex quantitative projects, including segmentation studies, product and concept tests and multi-market tracking studies and she is also skilled at conducting qualitative research among hard-to-reach audiences.
Before moving to the consulting world, Cathy was director of market research at Fidelity Investments’ intermediary business unit where she provided insights to guide the complex B to B to C strategic marketing function. Prior to that, she established the market research department at Talbots where she oversaw all research to support expansion into a number of different categories as well as international expansion. Cathy’s began her career in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather where she worked on major brands, such as McDonald’s and Mattel.
Cathy holds a BS from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and an MBA the Anderson School at UCLA. She has lectured on market research topics at UMASS Amherst, Boston University, and Harvard’s extension school.