PBN 2021 Leaders & Achievers Awards
Elizabeth “Betty” Robson | CEO and President, J.F. Moran Co.
Elizabeth “Betty” Robson believes that relationships are the key to success. As CEO and president of J.F. Moran Co. in Smithfield, she works to run the customs broker and logistics company with her sister, Victoria Black.
Robson has been working at the company since she was 15, beginning as a billing clerk. At Boston College, where she earned her bachelor’s degree, she arranged her courses so she could commute to work when she wasn’t studying. After college, Robson became a licensed customs broker and went on to earn her law degree from Stetson University before returning to Rhode Island.
It’s been more than 30 years since her beginning as that billing clerk. Robson paves the way for innovation by not only running the family business, but also serving as a faculty member at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, where she works closely with students pursuing their MBAs.
This marriage of academic and professional work spills over into the way that Robson teaches and works with her employees.
“Both have helped me to be better on the other side, with industry helping me be a better teacher, and being an educator made me recognize how vital it is to dig deeper,” Robson said.
With her students and her employees, Robson can say that she has been in their shoes. She has been “behind the desk” in numerous roles within the company and stresses the importance of the people she has met in her professional journey.
“It is the people who are the biggest part of the business,” Robson said.
Under Robson’s tenure as CEO and president, J.F. Moran has excelled, all with her focus on how individual relationships and mentoring within a company can help them thrive. Her biggest advice is, “If you can find something you love doing every day that makes you happy, you’re going to be successful.”
Robson lives in Lincoln with her husband, George, who also works at J.F. Moran. Her daughter Daphne will soon take the bar exam, and her son Ethan is pursuing his MBA.
