Giuseppe "Joey" Saputo (born September 25, 1964) is a Canadian businessman and the president of

CF Montréal CF Montréal is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1992 as the Montreal Impact (french: Impact de Montréal, links=no), ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team he founded in 1992, and

Saputo Stadium Saputo Stadium (french: link=no, Stade Saputo) is a soccer-specific stadium at Olympic Park, Montreal, Olympic Park in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The stadium opened on May 21, 2008, and is the cu ...

, named after his family's

dairy products Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are Food product, food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, dairy goat, nanny goat, and Sheep, ewe. Dairy products include commo ...

company

Saputo Inc. Saputo Inc. is a Canadian dairy company based in Montreal, Quebec, founded in 1954 by the Saputo family. It produces, markets, and distributes a wide array of dairy products, including cheese, fluid milk, extended shelf-life milk and cream prod ...

He is also the chairman of the Italian football club

Bologna FC 1909 Bologna Football Club 1909, commonly referred to as Bologna (), is an Italian association football, professional football club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Football in Italy, Italian football. The clu ...

Family

Saputo is the son of Emanuele "Lino" Saputo, the founder, former chairman & CEO, and majority shareholder of Saputo Inc., a Canadian dairy products company that also markets a range of other items including spaghetti sauce. Saputo previously owned Vachon Inc., the snack company responsible for the Jos. Louis dessert. Joey Saputo has four sons.

Career

Saputo Inc.

In 1985 Saputo began working for the family business, Saputo Inc., a

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

processing company founded by his father Lino Saputo in 1954. In 1990, he was promoted to president and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

of the Dairy Products Division for the United States. After occupying various positions within the organization, he was named Senior Vice President of Commercial and Business Development in January 2004.

CF Montréal

Saputo was the first president of Montreal Impact in 1992 when the Saputo Group was the team's sole owner. Under his leadership, the club was sold to a group of

shareholders A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal owner ...

in 1999. In 2002, the team was incorporated as a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organization, and he played a "pivotal role in the re-launch of the club" and returned as president. He then spearheaded the construction of

, the team's new home, inaugurated at

Olympic Park, Montreal The Olympic Park (French: ''Parc olympique'') consists of a series of venues and sports arenas in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which was home to many of the venues from the 1976 Summer Olympics. It is bound by Sherbrooke Street to the north, Viau ...

, on May 19, 2008. By 2007, he had left the Saputo Group in order to focus on the Impact. In 2012, he led the club's entry into

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

and oversaw the Saputo Stadium's expansion. Under his leadership, "professional soccer's popularity has soared to unprecedented heights in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

", with the Impact having won three championships, two Canadian championships, and reached the finals of the

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

. In 2021, the Impact were renamed as

Bologna F.C.

Saputo is the majority shareholder in a consortium (BFC 1909 Lux SPV SA) that bought the Italian football team

Bologna F.C. 1909 Bologna Football Club 1909, commonly referred to as Bologna (), is an Italian professional football club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. The club have won seven top-flight titles, two Co ...

on October 15, 2014. He was nominated as the next

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the club in an

extraordinary general meeting An extraordinary general meeting, commonly abbreviated as EGM, is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of a company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time.' The term is usually used where the group wou ...

on November 17, 2014,Bologna F.C. 1909 ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on June 30, 2014, PDF purchased from Italian C.C.I.A.A. (in Italian) replacing

Joe Tacopina Joseph Tacopina (born 14 April, 1966) is an American lawyer. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York to Italian immigrants. Early life and education Raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Tacopina attended Poly Prep and Skidmore College, bef ...

, who retained the position until annual general meeting on December 22, 2014.

Other activities

In addition to his work at the Saputo Group and CF Montreal, Saputo has also been involved in managing his family's assets, consolidated under Jolina Capital ("the Saputo family company"), an

asset management Asset management is a systematic approach to the governance and realization of value from the things that a group or entity is responsible for, over their whole life cycles. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as buildings ...

company where he was president from March 2001 to January 2004. Jolina Capital is a shareholder—and frequently a majority shareholder—in companies spanning sectors as diverse as food, transportation,

softwood file:Pinus sylvestris wood ray section 1 beentree.jpg, Scots Pine, a typical and well-known softwood Softwood is wood from gymnosperm trees such as conifers. The term is opposed to hardwood, which is the wood from angiosperm trees. The main diff ...

lumber, and

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

. Saputo is currently on the board of directors of

TransForce TFI International Inc. is a Canadian transport and logistics company based in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, a borough of Montreal. It operates primarily in Canada, the United States, and Mexico through 4 business segments: less than truckload (LTL), ...

, a publicly traded Canadian

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...

and

logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

company, where he has been an independent director since 1996.

Philanthropy

Saputo is involved in the Montreal community and serves on the boards of the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre Foundation, PROCURE, an organization that seeks to prevent and cure

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

, and the

Italian-Canadian Italian Canadians ( it, italo-canadesi, french: italo-canadiens) comprise Canadians who have full or partial Italian heritage and Italians who migrated from Italy or reside in Canada. According to the 2021 Census of Canada, 1,546,390 Canadians ...

Community Foundation (his father immigrated from

Montelepre Montelepre (; scn, Muncilebbri) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. It is known for having been the native city of Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano, of architect Rosario Candela, as well as the ancest ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, in the 1950s).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saputo, Joey 1964 births Living people Anglophone Quebec people Businesspeople from Montreal Canadian food industry businesspeople Canadian soccer chairmen and investors Canadian people of Sicilian descent CF Montréal Bologna F.C. 1909 North American Soccer League executives Major League Soccer owners Chief operating officers