From Carlson School to Interlachen Country Club CEO

When Joel Livingood, ’12 BSB, graduated from the Carlson School, many of his classmates headed off to jobs at Fortune 500 companies. But Livingood pursued a different path—hospitality management—and he’s continued to grow his career in that direction ever since.

Today, Livingood is the general manager and CEO of Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minnesota. The 115-year-old institution has a deep history in the community including hosting national golf tournaments, from the 1930 U.S. Open to the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open.

“I’m incredibly proud to lead an organization like Interlachen,” Livingood says. “Our mission starts with enriching the lives of our members, and, as we share with our team, the ability to enrich someone’s life every day is meaningful.”

Livingood leads a team of about 400 employees serving about 850 club members. He says he applies his Carlson School education every day to guide his team and problem-solve.

“Carlson does an incredible job of taking academic classroom experiences and showing students how to use those principles in the real world,” says Livingood, who was a Marketing major. “I can think of countless examples—from nearly every class—where you were together with classmates applying some of those principles in a way that has now become commonplace in my work.”

Livingood credits the Carlson School with helping him start his career in hospitality and boosting him every step of the way on his journey to Interlachen.

“While most of my friends went to Fortune 500 jobs with companies right here in the Twin Cities, I decided to go back to Fargo, North Dakota, where I grew up, to be the general manager at the Oxbow Country Club,” Livingood says. “I was 22 years old and leading a very small business, but a business nonetheless. And I can say with confidence that my success in that role and the ability to get that role fresh out of college was a function of my Carlson education.”

When Livingood decided to move back to the Twin Cities, he utilized Carlson School connections to get his foot in the door at another country club, where he worked for a couple of years as general manager before moving to his current role at Interlachen in 2017.

“The Carlson connections were plentiful,” he says. “It just shows the school’s impact.”

Livingood emphasizes that hospitality is an important part of the business landscape, and he’s proud of his team’s work creating meaningful experiences at Interlachen.

“No matter what industry you work in, if you can be good at hospitality and if you can make people feel special, unique, and recognized, then you’re going to excel,” he says.