AGE: 32
POSITION: President, creative director, founder, GLAD WORKS Inc.
RESIDENCE: Lincoln
LIFELONG AMBITION: To enjoy life, work and people
FAVORITE BOOK: “The Odyssey,” by Homer
GUILTY PLEASURE: Shopping
When, as a college student, Gina Lisa DiSpirito found herself having to choose between buying a car or a computer, she picked the computer, knowing, as she put it in her 40 Under Forty application, that with the computer she’d be able to work toward a car.
She took a job as an Apple representative on the Providence College campus to earn some extra money, plus a job at the college publications center to work hands-on in graphic design, and as a junior, she started her own design business, GLAD WORKS Inc.
After graduating cum laude in 1996, she still had to take jobs to support herself: She was at Providence Business News for 15 months, and at AAi.FosterGrant for 16 months. But then she was ready to devote herself to her company.
GLAD WORKS is a full-service advertising, design, marketing and public relations agency, and over the years, DiSpirito has grown it to 13 employees, with clients that include Gulf Oil LP, the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, WaterFire, WRNI/Rhode Island Public Radio, Brooks Pharmacy, AAA and Kaiser Permanente.
DiSpirito maintains creative leadership but also oversees client relations and business development and participates, in some form or another, in all aspects of the agency.
She’s also active in the community, supporting the arts especially and putting GLAD WORKS’ resources to work for organizations such as the Arts & Business Council of Rhode Island, Festival Ballet Providence, the Pawtucket Arts Exchange, the Rhode Island Foster Parents Association, the Rhode Island Blood Center, and Save The Bay.
This is not the first time DiSpirito has been recognized for her achievements: She was one of the inaugural 40 Under Forty in 2005, and was honored with the Rhode Island Small Business Award by the Arts & Business Council last year.
The latter, she said, has been the most influential experience in her life so far.
“I have devoted much of my personal and professional resources to supporting the arts and culture of Greater Providence and Rhode Island,” she wrote, so when she received that award, “the support and recognition solidified my passion and dedication to these causes.”
