A woman in charge: The story of Ruth Levy’s career

As her years at Stavis accrued, so did Levy’s responsibility and titles. She worked her way up to become vice president of marketing, then chief operating officer, and in 2011, chief business officer.

“I wasn’t a family member – I felt like I had to earn my stripes, earn my way in,” Levy said. “I did it by being good at my job.”

There were milestones along the way. With her help, Stavis became one of the first companies to successfully ship fresh wild salmon to European buyers. Her expertise in buying and marketing helped the company expand into a national powerhouse, and the company’s sales numbers now total hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to the figures it provides to SeafoodSource’s Top 25 North American Seafood Suppliers list. Levy attributes her success to a solid work ethic and a true commitment to serving her customers.

“It all comes back always to customer service. And figuring out best way to market, establishing connections between the vendor and the customer, and somehow delivering the most value to your vendors but still saving your customers money and making some for your own company in between,” she said. “I never said it was easy.”

Levy also served as president of the Women’s Fisheries Network and held numerous positions with the National Fisheries Institute. In her position as one of the few female executives in the industry, Levy has been admired and sought out for advice by younger women looking to make a name for themselves in the seafood business. And she is outspoken about the sexism faced by women in the business, both when she was climbing the corporate ladder and today.

“In my day, the sexism was more overt. Yeah, I hit some barriers and issues, and sometimes barriers those pissed me off. There was always the decision to be made of whether to work around it or smash through it. In the 1980s, I had boat captains who wouldn’t even let me on their boats. I had to hold up their check and wave it at them, yelling, ‘Do you want it? Then let me on the boat,’” Levy said. “Fortunately for me, there was always somebody progressive enough see beyond that and give me an opportunity to prove myself.”

Sexism still exists in the industry today, Levy said, “but the barriers are much more subtle now.”

Breaking other barriers, Levy helped guide Stavis from the age of the Telex machine into the age of the internet. When asked how the business had changed in her 27-plus years at Stavis, Levy said the world had become a more informed and sophisticated place.

“We used to be able to capitalize on our information edge, but really, that’s gone now. There aren’t too many secrets anymore. “A different path to market is evolving as the world shrinks. The supply chain is different in spots. You used to have a producer and [he] produced. Now it’s more integrated – he has marketing offices, he’s exporting his own fish, shipping direct to customers.”

In her travels around the globe inspecting thousands of different types of seafood, she said the internet hasn’t solved one common problem she has seen throughout her career.

“I’ve found there are still areas of the world that need to be reminded about what ice is,” Levy said.

Levy said, more than any other part of her job, she treasured her travels to more than 40 countries, and the window she had into seeing how Stavis’ purchases have supported local communities.

“Working firsthand with vendors in developing countries to build sustainable fisheries and businesses, you can see the impact of what you’re doing. You can see how your buying changes the whole social structure,” Levy said. “Hopefully, we helped improve communities. The object was and is to not only protect the resource but also to give communities a chance to better themselves with livable wages. It’s all about living social responsibility.”

Now 57, Levy said she'll be taking a hiatus from her career for the first time since she stopped teaching soon after college. She is embracing the chance to enjoy a house she and her husband purchased in Florida, and having free time to visit even more of the world.

Levy is not sure whether she’ll rejoin the industry, but said she’ll think about it over the next year and see what opportunities arise. Which is an appropriate response, given the advice she gives anyone who asks for tips for suceeding in the seafood business. She always answers with one word: flexibility.

It was advice she has given repeatedly, including in an interview she gave for her profile as part of the Sea Delight Ocean Fund’s Women in Seafood series.

“Nothing is status quo,” she told her interviewee. “This is a lifelong learning lesson: As soon as you think you have something sorted out, a new curve comes into the picture. You must continue to be flexible and open to new types of solutions. This gets harder as we get older and at the same time becomes even more important.”