Joey William Harper (born March 5, 1974) is an American businessman and an all-around adventurous and go full-throttle personality. He is the former founder and principal owner of Liberty Fitness Centers and SoluServe Technologies (HiSpeed Web Hosting). He was the youngest in senior management with Motorola at 27 years of age after Motorola acquired his company and brought him on board as one of the Vice Presidents to manage their new Content Streaming Technology (Aerocast).  After leaving the corporate world for a few years to pursue some personal interests and travel, he began general business consulting and investing while opening a nationwide coffee business where his pursuits lay today.

Born in L0s Angeles, California, Harper lived all over the United States growing up. He was involved at a young age in a myriad of ventures. Selling various products to golfers on a golf course through a small stand he set up on public property next to the 5th hole of the course; beverages, snacks and used golf balls he found in the woods surrounding the course that he cleaned up. 

Later in his early teenage years, he got a job at a large golf store owned by a State Senator working in the pro shop where he learned to repair golf clubs, and he refined his sales ability through convincing customers into trading in their golf clubs and purchasing new sets from the store. While working at the golf store he built numerous relationships that became his most valuable skill. 
 
When he entered High School, his entrepreneurship continued through lawn care during the warm season and snow removal during the cold season for his neighborhood and surrounding areas. It grew so large he needed to bring on his friends to work with him and this is where he began his experience with the recruiting, hiring and management processes.  After graduating High School, he embarked on a diverse business career that included founding successful technology, franchising businesses, general business endeavors and investments.

Family background and personal accomplishments

Harper was born into a very unique family on March 5, 1974, in Los Angeles, California. His father, William Szu, was born in Chicago just before the great depression and he played minor league baseball until choosing to enlist in the Airforce when World War II broke out. He was stationed off the coast of Japan on a small island where he and his crew would fly regular recon missions over Japan taking pictures of enemy sights to be bombed. At the end of his enlistment he was stationed in Munich, Germany where he served with an associate of the Kennedy family and after being discharged, he chose to remain in Munich where he was eventually introduced to Ted Kennedy. 

During his time in the Airforce, Harper's father had made some powerful connections with officers who oversaw military base operations throughout Europe. Being the visionary he was he saw an opportunity with bringing these relationships together: The Kennedys had a strong foothold in alcohol distribution in the U.S. and his Dad had connections to military bases in Europe. He brought everyone together and the Kennedy family now had international distribution. Due to his father’s connections, the Kennedy family asked him to run the JFK Presidential campaign in Europe targeting the American servicemen stationed there.

His mother, Linda Hunt, was adopted into a prominent Hollywood family that had famous legends such as Carmen Miranda and she caught the “Hollywood Virus” and took up acting and singing at a young age. She had a few minor roles in soap operas, movies and various television shows, but her real talent was singing. Her agent suggested she get into the country music genre, and she had a successful career. It was through her singing that she was hired by Harper's father that in addition to his other business ventures also had a talent agency where he placed various acts in the nightclubs on the military bases he was connected to; Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior and Judy Garland were some of the other talents he hired. They worked closely together, fell in love, left their respective marriages and got married. Wanting a fresh start from their pasts, they used my Mother's stage name of Harper as their last name when they were married. They moved back to the United States, settled down in Southern California and Harper was born soon after. He has one older and one younger sister. Both are very successful in life as well.  

Harper was raised to think for himself and follow his dreams. He didn’t excel in school, in fact, quite the opposite. He barely made it through every grade level being that his mind was always venturing off on another new idea. Also, relocating so often meant having to make new friends which is where his relationship building skills developed and got him into trouble for constantly talking in class. 

At a young age he played soccer where he earned a spot on the travel team for the more advanced players and he also began Martial Arts in Taekwondo. He earned a 1^st Degree Black Belt and went on to Mixed Martial Arts later in life. Playing soccer taught him the value of working together as a team and Martial Arts brought him more discipline, respect and to never back down from your opponent yet offer compassion when necessary.

Harper chose to forgo college and focus strictly on entrepreneurship where he founded one of the first .com companies in the mid-1990s doing website design and hosting. In 1999 his company was acquired by HiSpeed Technologies for 1 million dollars and he was brought on board HiSpeed as the Chief Operating Officer where he ran the company until a successful acquisition by Motorola (a Google Company) in 2001 for 3 million dollars. He was then brought on board to Motorola as a Vice President to manage their new streaming video technology platform which was the seed to streaming video technology today.

Joey Harper’s biggest accomplishment in life was surviving and recovering 100% from a devastating helicopter crash late in 2005 at the pinnacle of his business career. He spent a month in a coma, had numerous surgeries to repair all the damage, and upon waking up he had to relearn to walk and talk. 

After taking several years to make a full recovery, he began rebuilding his career and the numerous personal and business relationships he had. Today, he is back to where he was only better!