Joe Houssian began his career at Xerox in 1973 and then founded Intrawest in 1976. Intrawest grew from an urban residential real estate business into an internationally renowned resort and real estate development company responsible for the success of such pre-eminent ski resorts as Whistler Blackcomb. Intrawest grew rapidly to 25,000 people with resort and hospitality entities around the world. In 1990, Intrawest became a public company and was sold in 2006 for US $2.8B.
In 1994, Mr. Houssian acquired the urban development business from Intrawest to create Intracorp Developments. Intracorp currently develops real estate in six urban regions in North America and has delivered more than 22,000 homes in 176 communities. Mr. Houssian founded Elemental Energy Inc. in 2007, inspired by his children, intrigued by the fledgling clean energy industry and interested by the social-capitalism triple-bottom-line ethos of people, planet and profit. In 2008, Mr. Houssian founded Replay Resorts, an integrated hospitality company.
Mr. Houssian is also a partner and director in several other companies in various industries in the USA and Canada.