Joel Hodroff is Founder and CEO of DualCurrency Systems (DCS), a Minnesota-based company that provides next generation technologies for financial services, loyalty marketing and Customer Relationship Management. In 1997, Joel was awarded the first two U.S. patents for his DualCurrency Pricing, Accounting and Transaction Settlement system. An enhancement to retail Point-of-Sale systems permits DCS to manage the issuing and redemption of noncash financial products, such as frequent flyer miles or barter dollars, as well as innovative tools for economic development, such as employee benefits that don’t raise cash labor costs for employers or wellness incentives that lower the cost of health care. When it comes to loyalty rewards, the DCS system offers: more ways to earn; more places to spend; bigger rewards; and immediate redemption (no saving up!).

Utilizing everyday credit and debit cards, the DCS system increases sales and profits for merchants by enhancing the purchasing power of their customers. Proprietary contracts with retailers and service providers fill a virtual warehouse with high quality products and services that businesses have been otherwise unable to sell in highly competitive global markets. This win-win-win formula for consumers, retailers and banks spells transaction revenues and brokering fees for DCS and its industry partners.

Joel grew up in a family that owned a Jewish funeral practice where he learned to think about business blended with community service. Part of the impetus for DualCurrency Commerce came from his years as a corporate trade broker in the commercial barter industry. He also has nearly 30 years of experience in sales, sales management, marketing and customer service. Joel gained substantial entrepreneurial experience through Solar Consultants, Inc., a solar home heating company in Albuquerque, NM, which he founded and later sold.

The first pilot of DualCurrency Commerce was the Community HeroCard Program, where volunteers earned Community Service Dollars redeemable at participating merchants. Strategic partners in the Minesota test market included Hennepin County, Mall of America, National City Bank, The Minneapolis Foundation and Lyndale Neighborhood Association. The HeroCard program was spun-off in 2000 through a licensing agreement with CHC Data, Inc.

Joel Hodroff’s pioneering work in DualCurrency Commerce is documented in The Future of Money  by Bernard Lietaer, The New Alchemists  by David Boyle, and the Japanese Public Television Documentary Ende’s Warning to the Future.

In 2003-4, Joel served as Co-Chair of Responsible Minnesota Business, a nonprofit organization that he helped found in 2001. Through this role, DualCurrency Systems led a volunteer team that designed and developed a broadly sponsored Think Tank on profitable, responsible, sustainable and inclusive business practices, which piloted the use of Audience Response Technology to simulate electronic town hall meetings and stakeholder consensus building.

Joel is a dynamic and entertaining public speaker and workshop leader. He has presented DualCurrency Commerce to thousands of people across the country in business, academic, religious and community settings. Joel’s bold vision is: Entrepreneurial business leadership and a profit motive to address the significant social, economic, environmental and health care challenges that we face.

Joel is also an active Life Coach for business executives, entrepreneurs and those in major life transitions. As a recovering workaholic, he strongly believes that leaders ― especially business leaders ― must role model healthy, balanced lifestyles. Joel sees workplaces as the communities in which we spend the greatest portion of our lives and insists that today’s corporate cultures can be innovative, growth-filled, fun and nurturing, as well as efficient and profitable.

Joel lives in Stillwater, Minnesota with his wife Anni and stepdaughter Olivia. He has three grown daughters and two grandchildren. While leading DualCurrency Systems and serving on the Board of Responsible Minnesota Business, his life is also filled with family time, exercise, travel and many close personal friendships.