Stacey Bender: Founder of The Bender Group Public Relations Gets Personal

September 28, 2021 By Betty Taylor

She might be known for her public relations prowess, but Stacey Bender, founder of The Bender Group Public Relations, is known just as much for her personal touch and relationships.

While Bender has worked with dozens of clients since founding The Bender Group, she measures her long career in terms of motherhood. “My company has been around for 26 years – I remember this based on the age of my fourth child who was born when I first ventured out on my own,” exclaims Stacey. “I had children ranging in ages from 0 to 6, and that’s how I always keep track of how old the agency is!”

Not only does Stacey have a close-knit family – all her children have worked with her at one point and her eldest son, Hayden Hammerling, currently serves as her partner and president – her clients, many of whom she has retained since starting her boutique agency, also have become like family. With Stacey’s personalized care, plus the passion she brings to each project and person, it’s not hard to see why Bender continues to gain strategic successes year after year. Due to the success, most of Bender Group’s clients remain referral based. “Our close client base really enjoys our boutique environment which has exceptionally high-level media results and creativity,” explains Bender.

Upon graduating college and moving to New York, Stacey was thrown into the public relations pool, or rather ocean, at a major agency called DAY, which was eventually taken over by Ogilvy and Mather. During her time at DAY, where she was mentored by the two women founders, who played an instrumental role in her PR career, Stacey started working with blue chip clients, including Crystal Light, Kool-Aid, and Maxwell House. It was when her own house started expanding with the addition of more children that this public relations powerhouse realized she needed to be able to work around her own schedule, resulting in The Bender Group PR.

Today, The Bender Group specializes in lifestyle brands, as well as everything from food to fitness, health and wellness, tech, business-to-business and smaller start-ups. The Bender Group opened their doors with the The French’s Food Company and continued with them for over 20 years. This goes to show how valued Bender’s industry experience is and the deep, entrusting relationships formed with clients.

While she has always loved working with non-profit organizations, but none is closer to her heart than BIGVISION.NYC, a non-profit that supports young people in recovery, where she serves on the advisory board. After losing her youngest son Hayes to an addiction disorder two years ago, she was introduced to the founder of BIGVISION, Eve Goldberg who had also lost her son Isaac to addiction, by a friend, Amy Lazarus Goldberg, who shared the same tragic story losing her son Jake. Bender’s goal is to support what Eve founded in Bigvision.NYC, to raise awareness and funds to help others win, instead of losing the battle of addiction.