The World is Her Oyster

What do you do when you are a Carnegie Mellon University graduate and your heart is not in the work?

Tepper School of Business alumna Julie Qiu followed her passion to a brand-new career in the oyster industry.

Julie received a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2006, and then moved to New York City to work for a large advertising agency.

“I really wanted to be in a career where business, commerce and creativity intersected,” she says. “Advertising seemed really fun and sexy. I had an internship at an agency during my junior year and fell in love with that sector, so I was determined to go to New York.”

She spent the next 10 years working as a brand strategist for Fortune 500 companies.

“They had big budgets, but the industries that they were in weren't my favorite,” Julie says. “It was really incredible work, but I didn't have much heart for the businesses themselves.”

After moving in with her boyfriend, now her husband, she found she had a heart for something completely different — oysters.

“I started paying more attention to cooking and dining out, because that was one of the things that we loved doing together,” Julie says. “I found myself gravitating towards oysters for no other reason than they were everywhere in New York City.”

In 2009, she started an oyster blog called In a Half Shell.

“I was trying to empower consumers to get the best half shell experience,” Julie says. “Whether or not they were going out to an oyster bar, I wanted them to know what questions to ask, know when they were getting a good deal, know how to identify specific species so they were not getting a bait and switch, and be able to buy their oysters and shuck them at home, because that is the most economic approach.”

The blog led to a new opportunity for Julie in the sustainable seafood industry. She was offered a full-time job as the marketing director for Australis Aquaculture, a company that produces and sells ocean-farmed barramundi fish.

“I naively thought, ‘How big of a difference can there be between oysters and fish?’ But it's actually very stark,” she says. “The seafood industry opened my eyes to the entire supply chain and how different components worked. It is incredibly fascinating and a very exciting sector to be in.”

Julie stayed with the company for eight years. During that time, she kept up with her oyster work, including writing, traveling and teaching masterclasses about oyster appreciation to consumers and restaurant staff.

In 2023, she co-founded Oyster Master Guild, a network of oyster service professionals who are committed to raising the standards of oyster service and appreciation worldwide through education, training and community. The company is currently developing its first professional certification program for oyster sommeliers — a term Julie created to describe her own role in the oyster industry.

“An oyster sommelier is someone who fully understands the production cycle and the life cycle of an oyster, how that translates into the taste and flavor experience and how to open and present the oyster properly so that consumers are getting what they're really paying for,” she says. “It’s about helping consumers understand all of the work and energy that goes into producing this amazing, incredible live shellfish.”

As for the work and energy it takes to be an entrepreneur? Julie doesn’t mind, because her heart is in it.

“I still think about the motto ‘my heart is in the work’ and that taught me to always do what I love,” Julie says. “It has to be a marriage between what you're good at and what you are passionate about. It’s what guides me.”