Corporate Responsibility: Roger Berkowitz, President, Legal Seafoods | Date & Time: | 23 January 2009, 12:00 - 1:30 PM | | Location: | Sachar International Center | | Room: | International Hall | | | Roger S. Berkowitz is president and CEO of Legal Sea Foods. He has been involved in the restaurant and fish business for over 30 years. Roger took control of the business in 1992 after working in every aspect of his family’s operation, from fish purchasing to human resources to marketing. Under his stewardship, the private Boston-based company has grown from five restaurants to a current total of 28. Legal’s territory spans eight states along the Eastern Seaboard, though an active mail-order division provides next-day service to the rest of the continental United States. The advantage Legal has over other restaurants is that his family was solely a top-shelf seafood purveyor for decades before ever entering the restaurant business. That deep background, he says, makes all the difference in Legal’s approach. Indeed, Bon Appetit magazine touts a meal at Legal Sea Foods as among America’s “Top Ten Tried-and-True” dining experiences.
Berkowitz graduated from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. He also holds certificates from Harvard Business School’s OPM Program, and the University of London’s School of Business SEP curriculum. He employs his early training in journalism to great effect as chief spokesperson for Legal Sea Foods. His face and voice are familiar from television and radio spots, and he frequently offers his expert opinion on network broadcasts (CNN, NBC News, ABC Nightly News, NECN) about the fishing industry. He is a guest speaker at colleges and institutions, and he chairs and organizes conferences and events related to the fishing and restaurant industries, both in the US and on a global scale.
Berkowitz has earned many awards, including two of the industry’s highest: the Silver Plate in 1999 and the Golden Chain in 1998. For cultivating a new breed of culinary professionals, Johnson & Wales University has given Berkowitz an honorary doctorate, and the Culinary Institute of America has conferred an honorary master’s degree. Berkowitz serves on the boards of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston’s Children’s Hospital, UNICEF, and the New England Seafood Coalition. He is an active member of the Nutrition Roundtable at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Environmental League of Massachusetts and he is also a Director, Board of Overseers, Brandeis International Business School.
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