Sandy Lish & Wendy Spivak

Sandy Lish and Wendy Spivak are getting the word out

See how the University of Massachusetts Amherst grads took their collective experience and created one of the leading women-lead PR firms in Boston. 

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Sandy Lish & Wendy Spivak'87, '82

The Castle Group, Principal & Founder
UMass Video Profile Series Transcript :Sandy Lish & Wendy Spivak

I was working at an ad agency within the PR division. And Wendy was my client. And she was working at a health-care organization. And she was an excellent client who always knew how to page us whenever she wanted us and didn't get us immediately. My name is Sandy Lish. I graduated from UMass Amherst in 1987. And I was a journalism major. My name is Wendy Spivak. And I graduated from UMass Amherst in 1982. And I was a communications major. We launched the company really with the client each. We each had a client. We brought a client to the table. And so we had work immediately. So that's how we started the company. And we just waltzed in and started doing work without really knowing anything else. We shared an office. We shared a desk. We shared a phone. It was all—it was just dive right in and do it. That's what we did. We are of a certain generation that when we all went to UMass, we all know that we worked hard to get there. We worked hard to stay there. We worked hard to achieve and build connections, and then create really ourselves the successes that we've achieved in our lives. And so I think there's a lot of mutual understanding that everybody has worked hard and is willing to work hard. And nobody takes anything for granted. For a state university that has all the bells and whistles of any other private college university in the country, I mean there's anything you can want to do or learn there, you can. And I think you take that with you. So we have hired-- and currently we actually have other UMass alum working at Castle. We like having UMass interns from their internship program. And they're committed, and they work hard. And it feels like it's a way that we can give back to our alma mater, and give other people opportunities that they really need to be able to compete themselves. The fact that two young girls from UMass created a business from scratch, built a reputation that's very solid, very powerful, built an amazing network of people that value what we bring to the table. And that started from literally nothing. And that, to me, is our biggest success. I'm Wendy Spivak, principal and co founder of the Castle Group. I stand for patriotism. And I stand for UMass. Sandy Lish, Principal and co founder of the Castle Group. I stand for meaningful connections. And I stand for UMass.

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