John Joseph Bello was born on March 30,1946 and is an American entrepreneur best known for creating and building the SoBe brand of New Age beverages.
22 Facts About John Bello
1.
2.
John Bello is a 1964 graduate of Plainville High School in Plainville, Connecticut, where he played football, was student council president and was named to The National Honor Society.
3.
John Bello went on to matriculate at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, on a Navy ROTC scholarship.
4.
John Bello was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V for meritorious service.
5.
In 1972, after Vietnam, John Bello was assigned to the Moffett Field Naval Air Station Moffett Field as the Navy Exchange Officer.
6.
John Bello resigned his commission as a Lieutenant to attend graduate school.
7.
John Bello entered the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College, graduating with an MBA in 1974.
8.
Also, John 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.
9.
John Bello is broadly credited with creating the model by which every major sports league now operates.
10.
John Bello was ranked 46th on Sporting News' list of Most Powerful People in Sports in 1992.
11.
John Bello left NFLP on Labor Day in 1993 amid controversy.
12.
John Bello resigned as a result of losing a power struggle with then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue who was seeking to consolidate league operations, including the previously independent NFL Properties under the commissioner's office.
13.
John Bello launched a "3G" line of drinks, which included supposed energy boosters like ginseng, ginkgo biloba and guarana.
14.
John Bello expanded the brand's iced tea portfolio to include more exotic offerings such as Black Tea, Oolong Tea, Green Tea and Red Tea.
15.
John Bello created the "dueling lizards" design and took a lead role in the company's guerrilla marketing effort, proclaiming himself as the "Lizard King" in radio advertisements.
16.
In 2001, John Bello was named Ernst and Young's National Entrepreneur of the Year in the Consumer Products category for his accomplishments at SoBe.
17.
In 2005, John 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.
18.
In 2006 John Bello became a general partner of Sherbrooke Capital, a venture capital 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.
19.
Currently, John Bello is in partnership with his college roommate and fraternity brother Dr Lee Nordan serving as chairman of Eye Therapies.
20.
John Bello serves as chairman of the board in that enterprise.
21.
In 2016 John Bello was elected chairman of the board of Reed's Inc.
22.
John Bello 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.