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Logistics Plus, Inc. (LP) announced that its founder and chairman, Jim Berlin, received the 2026 Louis J. Tullio Community Service Award at the second annual Spirit of Erie awards celebration on Thursday, September 10, 2026. Presented by the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership before roughly 700 guests at the Bayfront Convention Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, the award recognizes individuals whose commitment to service has made a lasting difference throughout the Erie community.<\/p>\n
Named for the late, longtime Erie mayor Louis J. Tullio, the award celebrates civic engagement and philanthropy. In selecting Berlin, the Chamber pointed to a rare combination: a global company built and kept in Erie, paired with decades of generosity that has touched the city\u2019s streets, its young people, and its standing on the world stage.<\/p>\n
Berlin founded Logistics Plus in Erie in 1996 with three employees, one customer, and a $120,000 purchase order. Thirty years later, LP is a global supply chain company with nearly $1 billion in annual revenue and operations in more than 55 countries \u2014 still headquartered in Erie\u2019s historic Union Station, which Berlin purchased and renovated to anchor the downtown redevelopment corridor. A New York City native who chose Erie, he never left.<\/p>\n
Alongside the business, Berlin has built a civic legacy that is just as visible. For more than 20 years, he has commissioned public murals that have brightened Erie\u2019s corridors \u2014 from the Peach and Sassafras Street overpasses to the \u201cDon\u2019t Give Up the Shipment\u201d warehouse mural and the 2025 Joe Moore Award mural on West 12th Street. Through the Berlin family\u2019s philanthropy and the Success Through Sports Foundation, he has expanded access to athletics, training, and academic opportunity for young people across the region, and he helped launch a Ukrainian Hockey Camp and Cultural Exchange that brought together youth from Ukraine, Romania, and the Erie\u2013Buffalo area. During the COVID-19 pandemic, LP donated millions of dollars in personal protective equipment and relief supplies.<\/p>\n
His reach now extends well beyond Erie. Berlin is one of three U.S. business leaders appointed to the G-7 Business Advisory Council for Ukraine, and he was instrumental in forging the sister-city relationship between Erie and Chornomorsk, Ukraine. He also supports the emerging Gem City Shipbuilding initiative. His honors include being named DevelopErie\u2019s 2014 Employer of the Year, a Most Admired CEO by the Manufacturer & Business Association, a two-time Smart Business Pittsburgh \u201cSmart 50\u201d honoree, and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year inductee into the World Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
\u201cErie took a chance on a kid from New York three decades ago, and I\u2019ve spent every year since trying to earn that,\u201d said Jim Berlin, founder and chairman of Logistics Plus. \u201cThis one means more to me than any business award, because it\u2019s about this place and these people. Everything good that\u2019s happened for our company happened because Erie let us build it here. I\u2019m grateful, and we\u2019re not close to done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJim built a nearly billion-dollar company and never stopped putting Erie first \u2014 that\u2019s the example the rest of us follow every day,\u201d said Yuriy Ostapyak, CEO of Logistics Plus. \u201cThe Louis J. Tullio Award recognizes exactly what makes him who he is. On behalf of everyone at Logistics Plus, congratulations, and thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of the America250PA commemoration, the evening also presented its top Spirit of Erie Award to Erie native, former Pennsylvania Governor, and first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, and featured a keynote address by Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Logistics Plus, Inc. (LP) announced that its founder and chairman, Jim Berlin, received the 2026 Louis J. Tullio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-285793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}