Rising CEO Star From Monmouth County Dies In Highway Crash

MONMOUTH COUNTY – Joel Yeghen was a rising star in the venture capital world, but he was also the best uncle, son and brother anybody could have, his family said.

Yeghen, 39, of Ocean Township, the CEO and co-founder of Apogee Accelerator Group, died in a car crash this week. But his success was apparent all over the web, where he was saluted as somebody who had one goal in mind — to create a company and software platforms "that would one day change how people interact with each other," his company's website said.

"Joel proved that when under pressure, he could deliver to our company the results that mattered most," Lee Hatch, risk manager at Reddy Ice, wrote on Linkedin in 2013. "We appreciated the personal touch and the quick responsiveness that was the hallmark of our partership with Joel."

Yeghen was driving on the eastbound Massachusetts Pike around 8 p.m. on Thursday when he lost control of his car, police said.

His car struck the back of a tractor-trailer, police said. Troopers arrived to find the Lexus on fire against the median. Yeghen was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Funeral Services will be at 11 a.m. on Sunday at Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapels at 2130 Highway 35 in Ocean Township.

Apogee Accelerator Group was conceived by Stephen Lairmore and Yeghen, who was a New York entrepreneur and strategic sales executive with expertise in new business and strategic partnership development, according to the company's website.

The company has offices in New York, California and London.

"In his formative years, (Yeghen) always had one goal in mind — to create a company and software platforms that would one day change how people would interact with each other, either personally or from a business commerce perspective," the company said.

Lairmore said on Linkedin that he had known Joel for over six years and "he is a man of remarkable vision, experience, and business acumen in many different and diverse technology sectors well beyond his years."

After achieving his goal of creating advanced software platforms, Yeghen decided to take the knowledge he amassed over the nine companies he built from the ground up and work with other successful entrepreneurs to "help make their dreams come true," the website said.

Yeghen graduated from Rutgers University with a major in sociology and a minor in business. Joel is the son of Joseph N. Yeghen, who was one of the pioneers in the late 1970s of the EDI Standard, or Electronic Data Interchange, according to the website.

"Joel grew up surrounded by technology enthusiasts and entrepreneurs alike," the website said.