About Joseph B. Diehl
Senior Advisor, Managing Director of Diehl & Co. LLC, CPA, Attorney, Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach, and Licensed Benefit Auctioneer.
Joe is a problem solver at heart. He steps in when nonprofit boards need steady leadership, when associations need to be built or rebuilt, and when executives need a coach who has been in the room before. Today, he serves clients across Seattle, Tucson, and Washington DC through his consulting and coaching practice at Diehl & Co. LLC.
Years Serving Native American Tribal Organizations
Building Mission Driven Organizations From The Ground Up
Joseph B. Diehl has a genuine appreciation for the discipline of building something that lasts. For him, taking on a struggling nonprofit or standing up a new association from scratch is not just a contract, it is a calling. He embraces the work of designing financial systems, hiring the right people, and steadying operations, viewing each challenge as a chance to leave the organization stronger than he found it.
In collaboration with national associations, tribal housing authorities, and affordable housing organizations, Joe has refined his approach to building structures that serve complex stakeholder needs. He understands the intricacies of board governance, member expectations, and federal funding environments, and he crafts solutions that address both immediate continuity and long term sustainability. While he is dedicated to operational practicality, Joe also believes in raising the standards of what mission driven organizations can deliver. His approach is not simply about management, it is about building the kind of association that members trust and boards can stand behind.
Advising Boards and Nonprofit Executives
Joseph B. Diehl serves as a steady source of strategic insight, guiding boards and executive directors through the complexities of leadership transition, financial pressure, and organizational change. With a deep commitment to fostering accountability, Joe’s expertise empowers organizations to navigate uncertainty with clarity and confidence. His counsel illuminates pathways forward, aligning governance, finance, and operations into a single coherent direction.
Drawing from his credentials as a CPA, attorney, and certified functional medicine coach, Joseph B. Diehl crafts recommendations that resonate with the real conditions his clients face. Each engagement is carefully tailored to the organization in front of him, whether that is interim executive leadership, audit committee service, fundraising strategy, or one on one coaching for the leader at the top. Joe’s commitment to substance over self promotion has earned him repeat engagements across decades, fostering a reputation as the advisor boards call when they need someone who has done it before.
Joseph B. Diehl's Story
Joseph B. Diehl began his career in Chicago, graduating from Northern Illinois University with a degree in Accountancy in 1971 and passing the national CPA Examination in 1974. He went on to earn his Juris Doctor from UIC-Law in 1979, passing the Illinois Bar that same year. For the first two decades of his career he held audit supervisor, controller, and chief financial officer positions at firms including KPMG Peat Marwick, JMB Realty Corporation, Heitman Mortgage Investors, Icahn & Co., and TCW Realty Advisors, working across Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Along the way he designed the entire general ledger system for a nationwide organization in the early 1980s, choosing to build custom rather than buy off the shelf because the industry was too specialized for anything else.
In 1990 he was selected as the first chief staff officer for the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries, marking the beginning of a long second chapter dedicated to mission driven work. He founded Diehl & Co. LLC in 1996 and answered a newspaper ad in 1997 that would change the next three decades of his career, an interview with a tribal housing association looking for someone fluent in HUD and membership management. He went on to lead the Northwest Indian Housing Association for nearly two decades and stepped in three separate times as interim or deputy leader of the National American Indian Housing Council. Along the way Joe became a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, returned to running after a 25 year hiatus to take on marathons and ultramarathons, and joined Circle City Toastmasters to keep sharpening the craft of speaking. He now calls Seattle home with his wife Sue, while his daughter Jennifer and two grandsons live in Illinois.