She Started As a Telephone Operator. Now She Runs the Javits Center.

On any given week, the halls of New York Metropolis’s Javits Middle would possibly belong to comic-book devotees dressed as superheroes, carmakers unveiling their latest fashions, or canine lovers sizing up dozens of breeds.

Then the cubicles come down, the flooring are cleaned, and the sprawling, 3.4 million-square-foot Manhattan conference heart begins remodeling for the following crowd.

Joyce Leveston, an events-industry veteran from Cincinnati, is accountable for ensuring all of it goes easily.

As CEO of the Jacob Okay. Javits Conference Middle, she oversees about 145 occasions a 12 months and greater than 3,000 workers, from electricians and forklift drivers to accountants and salespeople. Greater than 11% have labored there for over 20 years, and a few are associated to one another.

Leveston, 61, landed the function in March 2025, turning into the primary girl chief of the group, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary this month and has performed an necessary function in New York historical past. It served as a base of operations after 9/11, supported reduction efforts after Hurricane Sandy, and have become a 2,500-bed emergency discipline hospital through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Worker No. 92

Leveston’s path into the conference world started within the late Nineteen Eighties, when she was a university scholar and Navy spouse residing in San Diego. Her then-husband would deploy for six- to eight-month stretches, and he or she and different Navy wives would meet up throughout from the positioning the place the San Diego Conference Middle was being constructed.

Leveston watched the power rise and determined she wished to work there. She requested her college for assist discovering a job and have become the middle’s 92nd worker, working half time at a switchboard. Two years later, after graduating with a level in communications, she turned a full-time occasion coordinator.

It was the primary of what Leveston counts as eight steps from phone operator to CEO.

“I actually wished to work in gross sales,” Leveston advised Enterprise Insider, including that she assumed her diploma could be sufficient to get her onto the gross sales staff. As a substitute, she recalled being advised, “You’ll be able to’t be on my gross sales staff. You do not know nothing.”

Be wonderful on the job you could have

Leveston discovered the enterprise by pursuing a number of {industry} certifications to get as a lot direct information as potential, fairly than going via a conventional B-school program.

That target mastering her craft fairly than chasing the following title turned one of many rules Leveston credit with serving to her transfer up the ranks. She mentioned the phone operator place was the one job she actively sought out, as she was repeatedly approached about new roles — a trajectory she attributes partially to how she approached every job she already had.

“If you are going to cook dinner french fries, then be wonderful at cooking french fries,” Leveston mentioned. “Aspire to be one of the best which you can be within the area that you just’re standing in, and that may finally result in the title.”

She additionally recommends taking up duties with out being requested, which could possibly be so simple as choosing up a chunk of paper from the ground fairly than deciding it is housekeeping’s job.

“The bosses will discover,” Leveston mentioned. “They are going to be calling on you to work on that subsequent venture that you just did not know that they had been even constructing out.”

Do not be afraid to say no

Getting observed is one factor. As Leveston’s duties grew, she needed to study to deal with the stress.

After almost 4 many years within the occasions enterprise, Leveston mentioned she will stroll right into a room and instantly spot bother, from a blocked exit to a centerpiece that poses a hearth hazard. The behavior follows her outdoors work: At eating places, she finds herself in search of the exits.

Security has generally meant killing a flashy thought. Earlier in her profession, she mentioned organizers of a music-industry occasion wished Navy SEALs to decrease the pop star Michael Jackson from the ceiling of a ballroom for a dramatic entrance.

“That is not taking place,” Leveston recalled telling them. They settled on having the SEALs scale the constructing and making it seem they’d rescued Jackson.

Within the occasions enterprise, Leveston mentioned, leaders have to remain calm when issues do not go in line with plan. “There’s at all times a hearth,” she mentioned.

Construct a staff you may go away

Expertise has additionally taught Leveston to not confuse authority with experience. Early in her profession, she promised a consumer {that a} room might accommodate 10,000 folks on bleachers with out first checking together with her staff. The setup might assist solely 8,500, forcing the consumer to cease promoting tickets.

Leveston mentioned she’d been “slightly too aggressive” and didn’t ask the best questions earlier than making the promise.

As she’s moved up in her profession, Leveston mentioned she’s discovered to lean extra on these round her — and provides them room to do their jobs. A journey fanatic, she sees taking time without work as a take a look at of whether or not she has surrounded herself with the best folks. If Javits could not perform as a result of she took a trip, she mentioned, one thing could be improper.

“Construct your staff and belief your staff,” Leveston mentioned. “Get out of their means.”