Joel Myers

Joel N. Myers is a U.S. businessman who is the founder, CEO, and chairman of AccuWeather, an American commercial weather service and media company.

This article is about the founder of AccuWeather. For the sportscaster, see Joel Meyers. For other people with similar names, see Joe Meyers (disambiguation).
Joel Myers
Born (1939-11-03) November 3, 1939
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
United States
Alma materPennsylvania State University
OccupationMeteorologist, CEO and Chairman of AccuWeather, Inc.

Background

Myers is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in meteorology from the Pennsylvania State University in 1961, 1963, and 1971, respectively. He founded AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania, in 1962. Myers served on the faculty of Penn State from 1964 until 1981 as instructor, lecturer, and assistant professor and he estimates that by the time he retired from teaching he had taught weather forecasting to approximately 17% of all practicing meteorologists in the United States.[1] Additionally, he served on the Pennsylvania State University Board of Trustees for 33 years, and continues to serve as an Emeritus Trustee.[2]

In 2007, Myers appointed his younger brother Barry Lee Myers, a business attorney, as AccuWeather's chief executive officer. The younger Myers was nominated to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in October 2017.[3] Barry Myers stepped down as CEO of AccuWeather on January 1, 2019, and completely divested himself of any ownership of AccuWeather in accordance with his pledge to the Office of Government Ethics and the U.S. Senate.

Myers has seven biological children and step-children.

Political activities

Myers faced criticism in 2005 when he supported the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005, a bill introduced by U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) that would have prohibited the National Weather Service from publishing weather data to the public when private-sector entities, such as AccuWeather, perform the same function commercially.[4] Myers has been a long-time large donor to the Republican Party, its candidates, and to Santorum, a former home-state Senator.[5] [6] [7]

References
  1. "Penn State University - Board of Trustees". psu.edu. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  2. http://www.psu.edu/trustees/members/myers.html
  3. Shepardson, David (October 12, 2017). "White House nominates AccuWeather CEO to head climate agency". Reuters. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  4. "Text of S.786". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  5. Hefling, Kimberly (2005-05-27). "Critics Question Timing of Santorum Bill". ABC News. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  6. Masters, Jeff (2005-06-20). "Update on the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005". Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog. Weather Underground. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
  7. Noah, Timothy (2005-08-02). "Santorum's Mighty Wind". Slate.com. Retrieved 2009-02-02.
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