Edward Joseph Shoen (born March 28, 1949) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman and lawyer. He is the president, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO) of U-Haul Holding Company, the holding company of

U-Haul U-Haul Holding Company is an American moving truck, trailer, and self-storage rental company (law), company, based in Phoenix, Arizona, that has been in operation since 1945. The company was founded by Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgef ...

International. His efforts managing U-Haul have been credited with the company's expansion in the self-moving business. As of August 2023, Shoen was estimated to have a net worth of $4.1 billion.

Early life and education

Joe Shoen is the third son of

founder

Leonard Shoen Leonard Samuel Shoen (February 29, 1916 – October 4, 1999) was an American entrepreneur who founded the U-Haul truck and trailer organization in Ridgefield, Washington, Ridgefield, Washington (state), Washington. After growing up in the farm be ...

. He was raised in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. He attended the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...

, where he graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(B.A.), and then received a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

(M.B.A.) from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

. He wrote his thesis at Harvard on self-storage businesses. Immediately after graduating from Harvard, Shoen became a member of the executive board of U-Haul. He quit briefly in 1978 and attended the

Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (ASU Law) is the law school at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. The school is in the Beus Center for Law and Society on ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. Created in 1965 as the Arizona State Unive ...

, where he earned a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

(J.D.) degree in 1981.

Personal life

As of 2017, Shoen lives in

, with his wife, Sylvia, and two sons: Carty and Joseph.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shoen, Joe 1949 births Living people American chief executives College of the Holy Cross alumni Harvard Business School alumni Shoen family American billionaires Arizona billionaires