ruthi postow
Founder and CEO
Read Ruthi’s columns in the Washington Business Journal
Ruthi came from Prichard, Alabama, a paper mill town in Mobile County, where she grew up with visions of living in New York City and having a fabulous career, although she had no idea what it would be. “I still didn’t know when I went off to the University of Georgia where I had to declare a major. But what? I only knew it wouldn’t be math. I'd always liked poetry and I could imagine spending four years with the likes of e. e. cummings and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. But my brother, 17 years my senior, said with that course I'd become a pseudo-intellectual. So I majored in history and education and became no intellectual at all.”
After graduating from UGA and teaching middle school for two years, she came to Washington to find the career she’d been searching for.
With her career path set, she added a family – fast – three boys in six years. Now they are all through college and on their own. Joe works with disabled people in Montgomery County. Eric is an officer in the Marine Corps and married to the beautiful Katia Gorlatova Postow. Alex works for RuthiPostowStaffing.
In 2001, after a long career in the business, she opened RuthiPostowStaffing which grew to be named among the Future 50 fastest growing companies within five years.
Today she is still active in running the business, managing the company’s charitable activities, and spending much of her time writing. She has a column in the Washington Business Journal, Reflections on Business. She has just completed a book, Life Lessons From Petain Street, about life lessons and values she brought from the blue collar neighborhood where she grew up and that she credits with her success. Now she is looking for an agent.
Ruthi lives in Washington with Mr. Magoo.If you would like to contact Ruthi, click here.
Parents: Norvelle Guytan Simmons was a tugboat captain with an outrageous personality. Eva May Simmons was head cashier of the Big T grocery store and helped organize the first Retain Clerks Union in Mobile.
Unusual family facts: We have the oddest names even for southerners. My sister’s middle name was Earline and my grandmother’s was Ozell. Then we had Uncle Tup, Uncle Eb, Uncle Rufus, Aunt Ernie Mae, Aunt Minkie, and Aunt Joe.
What made you decide to come into the staffing business? In the 70’s, with a liberal arts degree, you were a teacher or a secretary. Staffing was one of the few jobs that didn’t require typing or teaching school.
Who are your heroes? Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Eleanor Roosevelt
If you could snap your fingers and be somewhere, where would it be? Doing a book signing for my best seller.
What are your superstitions? Oh, please! I catch superstitions like the flu. Please don’t tell me your superstition because I'll catch it. If I'm walking with a friend who walks on the other side of a pole, I'll go back and walk around so the pole didn’t come between us because that would split the friendship. I won't write in red, I won't walk under a ladder, and I throw salt over my shoulder. That’s enough!
In a movie about your life, who would play you? It would have to be a comic with a quirky sense of humor – not sweet – definitely not Mary Tyler Moore.
Ruthi’s columns in the Washington Business Journal
- February 2011 Heroes need not fly — they simply must answer their phones
- December 2010 From pine cones to personnel — don’t forget the basics for building savvy sales strategies
- September 2010 Green may be clean, but is it clear?
- July 2010 When an employee doesn’t fit the job, consider fitting the job to the employee
- May 2010 Questions to ask before you hire
- May 2010 Attention! Marine Corps officer has lessons to offer managers
- March 2010 Get creative to motivate young people on your staff
- February 2010 Simple, step-by-step approach leads you to success
- January 2010 Successful leaders’ values often come from parents
- May 2009 Amid the doom and gloom, hope tiptoes in
Photos of Me!
