Member Profile: Meet Jorge Eduardo Castillo

AMA Baltimore is pleased to highlight Jorge Eduardo Castillo, Corporate Director, Business Development & Marketing at Passport Health as April’s member profile. Following our tradition, throughout the year, we showcase some of the area’s extraordinary marketers allowing the rest of the community to familiarize and connect with these individuals as well as with their respective companies.


Jorge is in charge of all facets of the business development cycle for Passport Health, including marketing design and development, corporate client services, strategic alliances/affiliate partnerships, franchisee management and process reengineering.
Jorge is also charged with forging partnerships with industry leaders, reorganizing corporate communication channels, operational processes, reporting protocols, and developing metrics and control mechanisms necessary for the implementation of Passport Health’s growth strategy.  He leads the team responsible for the creation and implementation of Passport Health’s Enterprise-Wide Resource Planning System.

Born in Lima, Peru; Jorge lived there for 12 years before coming to the U.S. and has lived since in Maryland. He holds a B.A. degree in Biological Sciences with a pre-medical concentration from Goucher College, MD and an M.B.A. from Loyola College in Maryland with a specialization in International Business and Finance. Jorge serves on the board of directors for the non-profit There Goes My Hero Foundation, the International Board of Directors of the Africa Travel Association, the Board of Advisors for St. Frances Academy and The Board of Directors of the MD Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Jorge has been a speaker at various conventions and has lead seminars on Organizational Management, Internet Marketing and Franchise Management.  He has been a guest lecturer at Towson University’s College of Business and Economics, lecturing on Entrepreneurship. He also serves as a hotline counselor for victims of domestic abuse through the House of Ruth Maryland and is currently training to be a certified pilot.

Jorge has marketing experience in a variety of industries ranging from real estate, to online-wine training, to restaurant operations, to health-care.  In all of his endeavors information technology and information systems play a crucial role.  As Jorge stated, “while the basic tenets of marketing may apply to almost all industries, the more specific marketing tactics are generally industry-driven.  Nevertheless, the use of search engine optimization (SEO), rich and social media and word of mouth marketing are, in my opinion, extremely important.”

Jorge likes to problem solve.  He has picked each of his jobs because of the tremendous marketing work that needed to be done.  For example, when he began working at Passport Health they had no serious internet presence and no cohesive brand.  Their client referrals were mostly coming from physicians.  With Jorge in control, they were able to go from 39,000 organic referrals to their site in 2006 to 180,000 in 2010.  Further, during the recession, they grew website traffic 300%.  Having an online presence and a strong brand has allowed Passport Health to continue to grow and it is paving the way for our international expansion.  Traffic to their website is coming from (in this order) U.S., Canada, India, UK, Mexico.

Jorge’s point of view on the value of ROI, new technologies, and success, “I am always interested in learning about new technologies to support targeted marketing.  In my industry, postcards do not really work and our margins are very thin so we have to be extremely careful about spending money if there is no positive ROI. If it is new, I want to learn about it.

Most importantly, no one-person can do it all.  If we have been successful it has been because I have fostered a team mentality—where I allow my team to be creative, take risks and make decisions.  They know they are expected to let me know if my ideas could be improved. Even though at the end I have to make the decisions, their input is invaluable.  I expect them to challenge me as much as I challenge them.  Without the talented team I have, none of our successes would be possible. They are the ones who deserve the credit. Not me.”

LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jorge-eduardo-castillo/5/456/18b
Company website: http://www.passporthealthusa.com/

Passport Health CEO Honored as a Top Influential Marylander of 2011

BALTIMORE, MD—4/27/2011: Fran Lessans, CEO and Founder of Passport Health, is being honored today as one of the top Influential Marylanders of 2011. The Daily Record, a leading business & law statewide newspaper, recognizes those influential leaders who have made an impact in their field and continue to be prominent in the areas of Civic Leadership, Communications, Education, Finance, Healthcare, Law, Philanthropy, Real Estate and Technology. Influential Marylanders was created in 2006 and selects 50 honorees.

Lessans founded Passport Health in 1994 and has successfully expanded the company to become the leading provider of travel medical services and immunizations in the United States. Passport Health recently opened its 180th office and now operates in 36 states. The company provides a comprehensive suite of services with a focus on immunizations for international travelers and wellness programs for corporations, including on-site flu clinics.

Lessans first came up with the idea for a comprehensive, client focused, full-service travel medical service during her tenure as director of a university-based health program. “I often referred students to large area hospitals for immunizations prior to their international trip,” recalled Lessans. “But the students would return from their hospital visit complaining about the cost and knowing little about the immunizations they had received or the necessary steps to stay healthy during their trip.”

“The health information they were getting was poor at best,” she continued. “Students would return from their trips complaining that they became sick abroad. This was a problem, so I started developing educational materials and the word spread.” Passport Health became the “One Stop Destination” for business, leisure, student and mission travelers. Passport Health has grown to become the leading provider of travel medicine in the United States. The company counsels over 20,000 travelers per month and offers corporate wellness programs such as on-site immunization clinics, drug screenings and physicals to corporate travelers.

Lessans currently serves on the Board of Visitors for the University of Maryland School of Nursing and has served on several Vaccine Advisory Boards for leading pharmaceutical companies like Novartis, Sanofi Pasteur and Merck. She is an active member of the Women’s Business Council and The International Society of Travel Medicine. Lessans has also worked closely with the CDC and has participated in the National Influenza Vaccine Summit. In 2005 she was awarded the Innovator of the Year award by the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development and in 2006 won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Maryland region. Lessans will be profiled in the Influential Marylanders magazine as well as the April 29 edition of The Daily Record. She will be recognized during the 2011 Top Influential Marylander awards ceremony on April 27.

Passport Health Announces Landmark Opening of its 180th Office

BALTIMORE, MD–4/26/11: Passport Health, the leading provider of travel medical services and immunizations in the country, announced today the opening of its 180^th office in Lancaster, Ohio.  “This marks a special moment in the evolution and growth of our company,” said Fran Lessans, Passport Health’s founder and CEO. “It took a lot of hard work to get to where we are today and I am proud of what we, as a group, have achieved.”

Passport Health is an innovative network of travel immunization clinics with offices in 36 states.  The company’s business model is unique in the medical service industry.  Whether you are traveling for business, leisure, or mission or volunteer work, Passport Health’s Travel Medicine Specialists can prepare you for your trip. The Vaccine Specialists® counsel travelers before their departure and provide them with destination-specific travel information, immunizations, specialty travel products and travel and evacuation insurance. 

Passport Health will be opening offices in Utah and Nevada in May along with locations in Bakersfield and Oakland, California, and Waldorf, Maryland. “We will be at 185 locations by summer, just in time for travel season,” concluded Lessans.

Passport Health has positioned itself to support the needs of corporations with its flexible on-site immunization programs—including on-site flu clinics, on-site travel medical services and on-site wellness clinics.  The company gained national attention when it mobilized doctors and nurses to publishing and postal facilities along the east coast after the 2001 Anthrax attacks. Their experts also prepared relief workers and relatives of victims of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and responded to the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, in 2005, by deploying nurses to the Gulf Coast to vaccinate utility and relief workers. 

Passport Health is expanding its services to include physicals, drug tests, lab services and a comprehensive suite of wellness offerings.   Passport Health’s growth has been steady, despite the recent recession.  It operated 106 offices in 2006 and projects to surpass 200 offices by the end of 2011.

About Passport Health: Passport Health is the leading provider of travel medical services, immunizations and comprehensive wellness services. Passport Health has twice been named one of the  “Top 50 Franchises,” by the Franchise Business Review, and won the 2009 and 2011 Franchisee Satisfaction Award. The company has been recognized and recommended by several institutions, including Johns Hopkins and the White House. Our nationwide staff is comprised of professionals that include board-certified physicians and registered nurses who have completed rigorous training in the field of travel medicine and immunology.  Passport Health’s services include adult and adolescent immunizations for business and leisure travel, college, immigration, military readiness, disaster relief, and bioterrorism response. Our on-site services for employers and schools include onsite clinics for Flu, Meningitis, Hepatitis A & B, Pneumonia and more. Passport Health has provided Anthrax vaccinations and Smallpox vaccination training and has worked with the US military, Post Office, Federal employees and has run a 24/7 immunization call center for the Department of Defense.