Hailing from a one-stoplight town in rural Northeastern Ohio, Joel has been an entrepreneur virtually his entire vocational life. Residing in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1971, he is the founder of five businesses – including The San Francisco Roommate Referral Service, The Avenue Ballroom, J. Koosed & Associates – a small graphic design firm, and The Meeting Game Salon – a social networking organization that produced evenings of conversation and ice-breakers for single adults. He was the editor and publisher of KICKS – Dance Around the Bay, a monthly dance magazine, and is the former editor of The Kensington Outlook – a monthly newspaper for the town of Kensington, near Berkeley, California.
He’s the author of the self-published Wabi-Sabi – Decay, Emptiness, and Other Ephemeral Beauty – a book of his photographs and commentary; and a songwriter with a self-produced CD, A Song For Ewe, featuring the title track, about Dolly, the first cloned sheep.
His businesses have been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle – including its California Living magazine, The San Francisco Business Times, New West Magazine, The San Francisco Bay Guardian, KPIX-TV Channel 5’s Evening Magazine, KTVU-TV Channel Two’s Segment 2, and KGO-TV Channel 7’s Hot Spots, and World of People.
These days he spends his free time playing the saxophone and ginning up his courage to sing Roy Orbison’s Crying in public. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his two Boston Terriers.