Joe Abely

Joe Abely brings an extensive history of personal and professional experience to his role as Executive Consultant for Club Benchmarking. In 2017, Joe and his business partner, Dave Duval, co-founded Club Board Professionals to provide financial planning and strategic governance training to private clubs and HOAs. Together, Dave and Joe developed an annual governance survey that gained notoriety as a powerful tool for measuring awareness of and adherence to recognized best practices for club governance.

As a member of the Club Benchmarking Strategic Governance team, Joe will focus on research aimed at analyzing and quantifying the relationship between strong governance and a club’s long-term financial health. In addition, Joe will support efforts to drive widespread adoption of governance best practices as a facilitator of board orientations and workshops.

His personal club experience includes serving on the Board of Directors of Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, MA for 12 years; as Treasurer for six years and President for three years. During his tenure, Joe addressed the service culture of the club and oversaw the return of the golf course to championship caliber, renovation of the main member dining venue and the pool complex and upgrading of the tennis facility to address growing family utilization. He instituted an annual membership survey to measure member satisfaction and priorities. Over the last decade of Joe’s tenure, Brae Burn undertook over $20 million dollars in capital improvements funded within the existing dues and fees structure with no borrowings or additional member assessments. Joe currently serves as Chair of Brae Burn’s Nominating Committee.

Joe is a Certified Public Accountant with an undergraduate degree from Boston College and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Over his 40-year career, he was a partner in a major international accounting firm and served as CEO/COO/CFO of public, venture-backed and non-profit entities. He has also served on the boards of a variety of public, private equity, non-profit and membership organizations. Currently, he is Chairman of the Board of the Hundred Club of Massachusetts and Finance Committee Chairman and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Braille Press. In addition to Brae Burn, Joe is also a member of the Wianno Club.