LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: JAY BORNSTEIN, BORNSTEIN SEAFOODS
(l. to r.) Colin, Kyle, and Jay Bornstein with Bellingham Technical College President Patty McKeown at the Bornstein Hatchery in downtown Bellingham. (Photo courtesy of Bornstein Seafoods)
“There’s no such thing as failure,” Bornstein said. “We have a perishable product, and you just do what you have to do. When something happens, you need to improvise and make it work.” And work it did.
THE FAMILY BUSINESS: FISH Bornstein grew up in Bellingham and in the family business. BSI acquires, processes, and sells seafood. His father, Myer A. Bornstein, started the company in 1934 with a stall in the Home Market in Bellingham. He incorporated in 1940 and moved into a fish receiving plant on the waterfront between Bellingham downtown and Fairhaven – where the Chrysalis Inn & Spa now stands. Jay (Myer J.) Bornstein worked summers at the Bellingham Fish Company (BSI purchased it in 1958) as a box maker and general 24 | BUSINESSPULSE.COM
clean-up helper. He spent a few summers fishing and worked as a cook on a boat in Kodiak, Alaska. “I grew up on a trawler,” he said. “Living in Bellingham was very productive for high school kids. You could earn $5,000 to $10,000 in the summer.” The military draft cut short Bornstein’s education at Western Washington State College. Following the death of his only brother in Vietnam, he joined his family’s business. “My dad never asked me to come in,” he said. But the seafood business was in his DNA. Jay’s hands-on experience at BSI included working with the salmonbutchering crew, and becoming fillet crew foreman, and then plant foreman. He moved into corporate roles as a union negotiator, and as a lead on government affairs and regulatory compliance. He added
shrimp and crab processing to the company’s seafood offerings.
LEADERSHIP ROLE IN THE COMPANY AND THE INDUSTRY In 1980 Jay became president of BSI, determined to expand and to innovate. “I participated in the
“I really enjoy the creation and challenge of how to do it better….I could figure out how to get one percent more out of a product. I was good at that.” — Jay Bornstein