Joe Popolo is the CEO of Charles & Potomac Capital, LLC, a private investment firm focused on technology, energy and real estate. From 1997-2019, Joe helped to transform the Freeman Company, the world’s leading live event brand experience agency. As CEO for 11 years and president for eight, Joe and his team tripled the size of Freeman to $3B in revenue, expanding Freeman into new services and geographic markets. With 7,500 full time employees in 25 cities on four continents, Freeman helps its clients create and produce some of the world’s leading B2B and B2B2C events, including the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), SXSW and the MLB All-Star Game Fanfest.

Upon the sale of Freeman’s Encore Event Technology subsidiary to Blackstone Partners in 2019, Joe relinquished his day-to-day responsibilities at Freeman to form Charles & Potomac to invest in and help management teams focus on profitable growth and diversification.

In 2022, Joe joined the Pinnacle Live Board of Directors and serves as its Chairman. Pinnacle Live is an innovative event technology partner for hoteliers. Joe sits on the advisory boards of the JEGI CLARITY, Samesurf, Inc. and Advisory Researcher, Inc. Mr. Popolo has a BS in finance from Boston College and an MBA in finance and economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He has been recognized by EY as an Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner in 2013 and by the Dallas Business Journal as one of its Most Admired CEOs in 2018. He serves on several not-for-profit boards including the Boston College Board of Regents.

Mr. Popolo has a BS in finance from Boston College and an MBA in finance and economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.