John Joseph Bello (born March 30, 1946, in New Britain, Connecticut) is an American
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...
best known for creating and building the
SoBe
SoBe (stylized as ) is an American brand of teas, fruit-juice blends and enhanced water beverages owned by PepsiCo. The name SoBe is an abbreviation of South Beach, named after the upscale area located in Miami Beach, Florida. In the past, the ...
brand of New Age beverages.
Early life
Bello grew up in
Plainville, Connecticut
Plainville is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 17,525 at the 2020 census.
History
Plainville first was inhabited by Europeans around 1650. By the 1660s, the land was incorporated as land for nearby Farm ...
, the son of the late Generoso "Jerry" and Edith (Melito) Bello. He is a 1964 graduate of
Plainville High School
Plainville High School is a public high school in Plainville, Connecticut. It is the only high school in the town of Plainville, Connecticut.
History
Plainville High School was previously located on East Street from the 1920s through the 1950 ...
in
Plainville, Connecticut
Plainville is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 17,525 at the 2020 census.
History
Plainville first was inhabited by Europeans around 1650. By the 1660s, the land was incorporated as land for nearby Farm ...
, where he played football, was
student council president and was named to The
National Honor Society. Bello went on to matriculate at
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
in
Medford, Massachusetts, on a
Navy ROTC
The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) program is a college-based, commissioned officer training program of the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps.
Origins
A pilot Naval Reserve unit was established in September 192 ...
scholarship. There, he played football for two years, was a member of
Delta Upsilon
Delta Upsilon (), commonly known as DU, is a collegiate men's fraternity founded on November 4, 1834 at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is the sixth-oldest, all-male, college Greek Letter Organizations#Greek letters, Greek-let ...
fraternity, and played drums in a
rock band called "The What Four." He earned a
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
cum laude in history in 1968. While at Tufts he also met the former Nancy Nelson, to whom he was married 1969.
Naval career
Upon his graduation from Tufts, Bello was commissioned an ensign in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
and served a four-year tour that included a
tour of duty
For military personnel, a tour of duty is usually a period of time spent in combat or in a hostile environment. In an army, for instance, soldiers on active duty serve 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the length of their service commitment. ...
in
South Vietnam as supply officer for PBR Mobile Base II on the
Mekong Delta with a mission of combat support for several
Patrol Boat, River
Patrol Boat, Riverine, or PBR, is the United States Navy designation for a small rigid-hulled patrol boat used in the Vietnam War from March 1966 until 1975. They were deployed in a force that grew to 250 boats, the most common craft in the ...
(PBR) squadrons. He was awarded the
Navy Commendation Medal
The Commendation Medal is a mid-level United States military decoration presented for sustained acts of heroism or meritorious service. Each branch of the United States Armed Forces issues its own version of the Commendation Medal, with a fifth ...
with
Combat V
Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...
for meritorious service. In 1972, after Vietnam, Bello was assigned to the Moffett Field Naval Air Station
Moffett Field
Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, United States, between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale. On November 10 ...
as the Navy Exchange Officer. He resigned his commission as a
Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
to attend graduate school.
Early business career
Bello entered the Amos Tuck School at
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...
, graduating with an
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
in 1974. While at Tuck he was named an
Edward Tuck
Edward Tuck (August 24, 1842 – April 30, 1938) was an American banker, diplomat, and philanthropist. He is known for funding the establishment of the Tuck School of Business at his alma mater, Dartmouth College. The son of Amos Tuck, a found ...
Scholar. After Tuck, his first business position was in
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...
management at
General Foods
General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895.
The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate ...
, where he worked on
Sanka
Sanka is a brand of instant decaffeinated coffee, sold around the world, and was one of the earliest decaffeinated varieties. Sanka is distributed in the United States by Kraft Heinz.
History
Decaffeinated coffee was developed in 1903 by a team ...
and
Maxwell House
Maxwell House is an American brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Heinz in North America and JDE Peet's in the rest of the world. Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, it was named in honor of the ...
coffee brands. After an interim experience in athletic footwear as product director for
Keds
Keds is an American brand of canvas shoes with rubber soles. Founded in 1916, the company is owned by Wolverine World Wide. The original shoe design, the Champion, was the first mass-marketed canvas-top "sneaker".
History
Early history
In 1 ...
Brand footwear, he moved on to a strategic planning and marketing functions in the Pepsi Cola Division of PepsiCo where he worked on Mountain Dew and the Pepsi Challenge.
National Football League Properties
In 1979, he joined NFL Properties (NFLP), the marketing and merchandising arm of the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
, where he ascended to the position of president of NFL Properties in 1986. At NFLP, he helped transform licensed apparel from a
small business selling novelty merchandise in
specialty store A specialty store is a shop/store that carries a deep assortment of brands, styles, or models within a relatively narrow category of goods. Furniture stores, florists, sporting goods stores, and bookstores are all specialty stores. Stores such as ...
s into everyday fashion transcending fan-wear, sold at major chain
sporting goods
Sports equipment, sporting equipment, also called sporting goods, are the tools, materials, apparel, and gear used to compete in a sport and varies depending on the sport. The equipment ranges from balls, nets, and protective gear like helmets. ...
and
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
s. In addition to creating
NFL ProLine authentic sideline gear and apparel made available to consumers to so that they could "Wear What the Pros Wear", Bello drove major sponsorships with Coke, Canon, Gatorade, Miller Brewing, GTE, Apple, Citibank, American Airlines and many consumer food products through a Sunday insert program called the "NFL Tailgate Party." He also played a major role in creating the NFL Experience, a fan festival that is now a fixture and fan favorite at Super Bowls. Also, Bello helped organize the American Bowl series of international pre-season games starting with the 1986 game between the Refrigerator Perry led Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys played in front of 81,000 fans at London's Wembley Stadium. Bello's innovative approach to promoting and enhancing the NFL experience included bedecking pro golfer Payne Stewart in NFL Team colors as he played on the tour, sponsoring NASCAR racers, women's lines of NFL team clothing and made for TV events such as the Quarterback Challenge and The NFL's Fastest Man.
During Bello's tenure at NFLP, the business grew from $30 million in
retail sales, sponsorships and publishing to $3 billion when he left in 1993. Bello is broadly credited with creating the model by which every major sports league now operates. He was ranked 46th on Sporting News' list of Most Powerful People in Sports in 1992.
Bello left NFLP on Labor Day in 1993 amid controversy. He resigned as a result of losing a power struggle with then-NFL Commissioner
Paul Tagliabue
Paul John Tagliabue (; born November 24, 1940) is an American lawyer who was the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL). He took the position in 1989 and served until September 1, 2006. He had previously served as a lawyer for the NFL ...
who was seeking to consolidate league operations under the commissioner's office.
SoBe Beverages
Upon his departure from the NFL, Bello took a position as VP Marketing with
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
-based Ferolito, Vultaggio and Sons, makers of
AriZona iced tea
Arizona Beverages USA (stylized as AriZona) is an American producer of many flavors of iced tea, juice cocktails, and energy drinks based in Woodbury, New York. Arizona's first product was made available in 1992, to compete with Snapple. Bo ...
. At AriZona he joined a former Pepsi colleague Mike Schott, then COO of AriZona Beverages. After four months he left AriZona to create his own beverage company in partnership with
Tom Schwalm that became the South Beach Beverage Company, named after the trendy
South Beach area of
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
.
The new company, based in
Norwalk, Connecticut, marketed so-called "New Age" beverages—exotic juice blends and ready-to-drink iced teas—but faced formidable competition from its predecessors, including
Snapple
Snapple is a brand of tea and juice drinks which is owned by Keurig Dr Pepper and based in Plano, Texas, United States. The company (and brand), which was originally known as Unadulterated Food Products, was founded in 1972. The brand achieved som ...
, Mystic,
Nantucket Nectars
Nantucket Nectars is an American beverage company created by Tom First and Tom Scott, which began as a small business selling a variety of items to yachts in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Eventually they began selling juice blends that were original ...
and AriZona. South Beach needed a point of differentiation in the marketplace, so Bello added
trace elements
__NOTOC__
A trace element, also called minor element, is a chemical element whose concentration (or other measure of amount) is very low (a "trace amount"). They are classified into two groups: essential and non-essential. Essential trace elements ...
of various herbs and nutrients—such as ginseng,
ginkgo biloba
''Ginkgo biloba'', commonly known as ginkgo or gingko ( ), also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of tree native to China. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago. Fossil ...
, guarana, carnitine, Echinacea, yohimbe, taurine and praline—and promoted their benefits beyond hydration. He launched a "3G" line of drinks, which included supposed energy boosters like ginseng, ginkgo biloba and guarana. He also expanded the brand's iced tea portfolio to include more exotic offerings such as
Black Tea
Black tea, also translated to red tea in various East Asian languages, is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, yellow, white and green teas. Black tea is generally stronger in flavour than other teas. All five types are made from ...
,
Oolong Tea
Oolong (, ; (''wūlóngchá'', "dark dragon" tea)) is a traditional semi-oxidized Chinese tea ('' Camellia sinensis)'' produced through a process including withering the plant under strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting.Zhonggu ...
(with
bee pollen
Bee pollen, also known as bee bread and ambrosia, is a ball or pellet of field-gathered flower pollen packed by worker honeybees, and used as the primary food source for the hive. It consists of simple sugars, protein, minerals and vitamins ...
), Green Tea (with Echinacea) and Red Tea (with selenium). Under Bello's direction, SoBe launched a line of "3C" Elixirs (containing calcium, carnitine and chromium) in varieties such as Orange-Carrot, Orange-Tomato (including lycopene), Energy (with guarana, yohimbe and arginina), Power (taurine, creatine and praline), Zen Blend (triple ginseng tea with schizandra), Wisdom (with ginkgo biloba, St. John's wort and
gotu kola
''Centella asiatica'', commonly known as gotu kola, kodavan, Indian pennywort and Asiatic pennywort, is a herbaceous, perennial plant in the flowering plant family Apiaceae. It is native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australia, and isla ...
) and Eros (with
dong quai
''Angelica sinensis'', commonly known as ''dong quai'' () or female ginseng, is a herb belonging to the family Apiaceae, indigenous to China. ''Angelica sinensis'' grows in cool high altitude mountains in East Asia. The yellowish brown root of th ...
, damiana, foti and zink).
He created the "dueling lizards" design and took a lead role in the company's
guerrilla marketing
Guerrilla marketing is an advertisement strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service. It is a type of publicity. The term was popularized by Jay Conrad Levinson's 1984 ...
effort, proclaiming himself as the "Lizard King" in
radio advertisements
In the United States, commercial radio stations make most of their revenue by selling airtime to be used for running radio advertisements. These advertisements are the result of a business or a service providing a valuable consideration, usually ...
. He gave the brand an "attitude" by enlisting athletes who were somewhat out of the mainstream—such as golfer
John Daly and downhill skier
Bode Miller
Samuel Bode Miller ( ; born October 12, 1977) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer. He is an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist, a two-time overall World Cup champion in 2005 and 2008, and the most successful male America ...
—as official spokespersons for the brand. The SoBe marketing team also wooed independent beverage distributors, offering them very high margins and a small chunk of equity in the company.
From its creation in 1995, SoBe's sales rose rapidly and climbed to $275 million by 2000. The following year, the brand rode the "good-for-you" trend among American consumers to break the quarter billion dollar barrier in 2000. SoBe was sold to PepsiCo for a reported $370 million cash on October 30, 2000. Bello remained with Pepsi overseeing SoBe until early 2004.
By the end of 1999 the company had sold 14.8 million cases of drinks and taken in $166.4 million. South Beach challenged rival AriZona in sales and was pursuing Snapple for leadership in the new age drink category. Less than pleased, rival AriZona slapped the company with a lawsuit claiming that SoBe had copied its bottle design or stolen trade secrets. Then Judge
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Maria Sotomayor (, ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since ...
ruled in SoBe's favor denying a preliminary injunction. Legal action proceeded and persisted on the federal and state level until 2007, long after the company had been sold to PepsiCo. In 2007, the court dismissed all AriZona claims on summary judgement
In 2001, Bello was named
Ernst and Young
Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...
's National Entrepreneur of the Year in the
Consumer Products
A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike a intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good, but t ...
category for his accomplishments at SoBe.
Other business activity
Upon leaving Pepsi, Bello formed JoNa Ventures, a family investment vehicle that included among other endeavors investment and active involvement in Firefighter Brands, Soup Kitchen International, Eye and PresbyopiaTherapies and Beso Del Sol Sangria.
With former NFL associates Bruce Burke and Peter French, Bello formed
Firefighter Brands, a social enterprise intended to benefit local firefighting units with revenues generated from the sale of Firefighter Branded coffee, chips, chili's, trail mixes and energy drinks. The project was supported by a group of well to do and high-profile community minded investors but ultimately failed due to lack of cohesive co-operation among various firefighting entities.
In 2005, Bello invested in and became chairman of
Soup Kitchen International, a company he helped found that markets soups created by
Al Yeganeh, the New York-based soup chef made famous as the "Soup Nazi" on the popular ''Seinfeld'' TV show, for retail stores, and developed franchised restaurants.
In 2006 Bello became a general partner of
Sherbrooke Capital, a
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...
firm that provides growth capital to early-stage health and wellness companies that led the $6.35 million equity-financing round for IZZE in early 2005. In the spring of 2006, Bello was appointed
Chairman of the Board of the
IZZE Beverage Company, a maker of sparkling juices.
VendingMarketWatch News, May 2, 2006
/ref> Izze was subsequently sold to PepsiCo for an undisclosed sum. Currently, Bello is in partnership with his college roommate and fraternity brother Dr. Lee Nordan serving as chairman of Eye Therapies. ET is a development and marketing company for products in the OTC ocular care and cosmetic market. In addition, Bello led an investor group that owns a substantial interest in Beso Del Sol, a line of all natural sangrias imported from Spain. He serves as chairman of the board in that enterprise. In 2016 Bello was elected chairman of the board of Reed's Inc. (REED, NYSE), a publicly traded company. Formed in 1989, Reed's manufactures and markets a line of ginger beers and naturally brewed soft drinks under the Virgil's brand name.
Personal
Bello's outside activities include: charter trustee, Tufts University; board of advisors for athletics, Tufts University; board member, Dartmouth College's Tuck Center for Private Equity; board member Gordon Entrepreneurial Institute at Tufts University and board of directors, New York Council Boy Scouts of America and former trustee, the Hotchkiss School. He has lectured at colleges and MBA programs including Tuck, NYU, Yale, Cornell, Georgetown, Tufts, Dartmouth, Gonzaga and at high schools and at business forums and symposiums about his NFL and SoBe experiences and entrepreneurship.
Bello resides in Scottsdale, Arizona
, settlement_type = City
, named_for = Winfield Scott
, image_skyline =
, image_seal = Seal of Scottsdale (Arizona).svg
, image_blank_emblem = City of Scottsdale Script Logo.svg
, nick ...
, and Rye, New York
Rye is a coastal suburb of New York City in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is separate from the Town of Rye, which has more land area than the city. The City of Rye, formerly the Village of Rye, was part of the Town until it r ...
, with his wife Nancy. The couple has three grown children: Lauren, Lindsay and John Michael.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bello, John
1946 births
American drink industry businesspeople
Living people
National Football League executives
People from Plainville, Connecticut
People from Rye, New York
People from Scottsdale, Arizona
Tuck School of Business alumni
Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni
United States Navy officers
United States Navy personnel of the Vietnam War