JoBen Barkey

Visionary - CEO

I was raised in Amazon Rainforest (Peru) from shortly after my birth until I was 18 years old. I am a dual citizen (Canadian and American), I went to University in Canada and graduated with a BA in Psychology. Owning a business was always an intriguing idea to me, but I had no idea how to do that. I heard about a franchise system that was just starting out, liked the business model and decided to move to California to start Soccer Shots Orange County and later expanding our operations to include Soccer Shots Oahu. We started a nonprofit as well to manage our donation projects, which include numerous community development projects in Cameroon and Peru as well as a discretionary giving fund for isolated needs that arise. We have been fortunate enough to win several awards and recognitions through the years but the award that we feel best captures who we aspire to be and how we desire to positively impact others, is the 2022 Franchise Rockstar Award in the "Giving Back" Category (we were honored to be selected as finalists out of 300,000 franchises, but to win the award was very special to everyone in our organization).