Joel Burstein
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, BEAM
2022
Joel Burstein, CEO & Co-Founder of the BEAM Collaborative, a strategic planning advisory services firm designed to expand local black businesses. Joel’s first startup was Keep it Simple Training and Development, and after years of success, he sold that business in 2021 to create BEAM to exclusively support growth in the black community.
Joel’s expertise comes from his 12-year career as a manager with over 70 employees at a Fortune 500 company. Joel has consulted for hundreds of companies and at all levels of management from the CEO to the front-line supervisor.
Joel is on the board of directors for the African American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania. He is also the Western Pennsylvania Vice Chair of the MBE Input Committee and a board member of the Eastern Minority Supplier Development Council.
Joel’s success can be attributed to his own personal development. After graduating early from The University of Miami, Joel continued to further his education by earning his Certificate of Financial Planning from New York University. His customer focused approach led to his firm selecting him to attend The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a prestigious 3-year program where acceptance is by invite only.
This cannot be thought of as a conference or a summit. The stakes are simply too high and the data/conversation and methods to drive action more valuable/motivating than any gathering I have attended. I took more than 100 pages of notes and have shared them with my CBS News leadership team, anchors, producers, and correspondents. Nothing about this gathering was easy. The agony around this topic is real. But no one curious about it could ask for a more devoted, rational, or unflinching look into this dark but decipherable world.
