The Carver name goes back further than most family stories ever get told. It starts with Isaac Carver of Boston, Lincolnshire, England, born in 1529. His son Robert made the crossing to the American colonies in 1638 with his wife Christian, settling at Marshfield in Plymouth Colony. Robert's son, John Carver, was born right around the time of the family's arrival — which is where the Carver name in America truly begins, in the 1640s. (For the record: this John Carver is a different man entirely from Governor John Carver, the Mayflower passenger and first governor of Plymouth Colony. Same name, no relation — genealogists have checked.)

From there, the family put down roots and kept moving. An Ensign named David Carver held the line in Marshfield through three marriages. His descendants carried the name into Norfolk, Massachusetts, then Canterbury, Connecticut, where Elihu Carver served as a Major in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812.

It was Elihu's son, Pierre Carver, who brought the family south. Born in 1822, Pierre served as a 3rd Lieutenant in the Confederate Army and settled in Hancock County, Mississippi — right next door to what would become Pearl River County, home to Poplarville. His son, Randolph Orville Carver, married Ada Slaydon, joining the Carver family to another old Mississippi family with deep roots of its own. Their son, Harold Pierre Carver, Sr., settled in Poplarville and married Vivian Orr — and that's where the Carver name meets the two-hotel town that shaped everything that came next.

Joel Carver grew up in Poplarville, Mississippi — a small town where, in the early 1900s, there were exactly two hotels. His great-grandparents owned both of them: the Orr Hotel and the Carver Hotel, now known as The Blueberry Inn. Entrepreneurship wasn't a lesson Joel learned later in a business school; it was the family business. His parents ran a restaurant and a children's clothing store, and by the time Joel was old enough to wait tables, he'd already learned two things — how small businesses actually survive, and that he would never make a good waiter.

After college, Joel took his first hotel job as a sales manager at The Capitol House Hotel in Baton Rouge. That one job set off a career spanning more than four decades — director of sales, marketing director, assistant vice president, corporate director of sales, vice president of sales and marketing, senior vice president of marketing, sales and public relations. Today, he's President and CEO of Atlanta-based The Carver Companies, leading Carver Hotel Group, Staffing By Carver, and Carver-Olson Hospitality Search.

Along the way, Joel earned a reputation as a genuine "change agent" and "early adopter" — the kind of leader companies bring in when the market gets hard, not when it's easy. During one of the worst recessions in modern history, he moved an entire hospitality portfolio's market share from 112% to over 118%. Growth when everyone else was shrinking.

His peers noticed. Joel was named one of the Top Twenty-Five Most Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality Sales and Marketing, received the "Spirit to Serve" award from Marriott Hotels and Resorts, and won the 2011 "Diversity in Business" award from the Minneapolis/Twin Cities Business Journal. Carver Hotel Group was later named one of the "Top Start-ups in Georgia."

As a speaker and executive, Joel's career has taken him to 49 of the 50 states, every province of Canada, and a significant part of the world. But his mind stays close to Poplarville, Mississippi, and to the three people who shaped how he leads: From his father, Pete: "When an opportunity comes, take it — even if you're not ready. It may not present itself again." From his mother, Bertha: "Make sure your decisions make sense," and "Don't ever judge people until you've walked in their shoes." From his grandmother Vivian — a pioneer who earned her Master's degree and pursued a Doctorate at a time when few women finished college at all: "You can go anywhere and achieve anything you want, but don't ever forget where you came from." Those three lessons aren't framed quotes on a wall. They're built into how The Carver Companies operates today — the latest chapter in a family line that's been finding its way, generation after generation, for nearly five hundred years.

Joel has served as a board member of the Association of Starwood Franchise Owners Association and on HSMAI's Americas Board (2012–2015). The Carver Companies gives back through partnerships with The Point Foundation, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, The Human Rights Campaign Fund, and Backpack Buddies, which helps ensure at-risk children have adequate food. Joel is also an active member of the Episcopal faith. 

Joel's perspective on leadership, resilience, and building something from nothing didn't come from a textbook — it came from a restaurant in Poplarville, Mississippi, and from a family name that's been putting down roots and starting over since long before anyone thought to write it down.