
Joe Lucarelli
Leader of Leaders – US East and Canada Sales
“Customer service is the intended bi-product of building an organization that prioritizes empathetic customer relationships. When you care deeply for your team and challenge them to genuinely invest in and care for your customers, it becomes a superpower.”
Joe suffers from epistemophilia: love of knowledge! He has read hundreds of books and had a dozen fantastic mentors. He’s a lover of learning and an avid knowledge seeker. This preoccupation started young during his education, when he discovered the value of learning and the responsibility of the student. “Knowledge and access to information are incredible privileges that should never be taken for granted. The lesson is only as good as the learner’s commitment to growth and improvement.”
While he appreciates the lessons learned, some are not so easy to accept. “When I was younger, I experienced personal loss in a way that changed my views of the world. While pain and grief make for unforgiving teachers, the lessons I learned and the gratitude I developed for life as a result have made me who I am.”
He believes that access to information, technology, and medicine is the path forward for his passion: Human rights and the preservation of our planet and natural resources. That access, he hopes, “…will level the playing field for developing nations moving forward and catalyze global progress and growth.”
Included in his quest for knowledge are experiences. He likes to travel to “…anywhere new. Experience can help create empathy. Travel changes you. The new flavors, sights, and sounds that come with it widen our perspective and make our lives more colorful.”
And while knowledge is important, Joe recognizes it’s not the only thing that’s important. Ten years ago, he started pursuing music more seriously. In a band formed with long-time friends, he plays upright bass. And he’s in a great place for it – Asbury Park, New Jersey. Sometimes referred to as the “Greenwich Village of the Garden State,” Asbury Park has a vibrant arts scene that he appreciates. “Music as a creative outlet, and the ability to create and share this energy with people so close to me, has been a gift.”
As a child, Joe was fascinated by the ancient world. “If I pursued the first job I ever wanted I’d probably be digging up dinosaur bones somewhere!” Fortunately for Innovative, that’s not what happened. And, it’s fortunate for Joe, too. He’s proud of the team here. “Innovative’s people are special. We care boldly for our customers and are willing to do things differently in pursuit of transformative outcomes. No job too small, no goal too big.” He recognizes the value of cloud computing, too, crediting it with “empowering customers with the tools necessary to reimagine their core business models while eliminating the resource restraints and “undifferentiated heaving lifting” of traditional approaches.”
He has lived in the New Jersey/New York area all his life, and is the oldest of three boys. He and his wife have a 14-year-old cat, Lily. His favorite quote comes from Heraclitus: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”