Joe is an icon in the MH and RV industries. Beginning in 1991, Joe was CEO of the Affinity Group. Affinity had 2 million members in their clubs that offered ancillary products and services to the RV industry. Affinity had annual revenue of about $450 million. Joe purchased Thousand Trails, the largest private membership camping organization in the United States, in 2006. Thousand Trails had 82 RV resorts and 135,000 member families when it was purchased by ELS. Joe then became the President of Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) with a market capitalization at that time of $3 billion. They had over 5100 employees and annual revenues in excess of $500 million.