John Bello

John Bello is the founder and former CEO of South Beach Beverage Company, the maker of nutritionally enhanced teas and juices marketed under the brand name SoBe. PepsiCo purchased the company, established in 1995, in 2001 for $370 million.

In 2001, Ernst and Young named Bello national Entrepreneur of the Year in the Consumer Products category for his work with SoBe. The Ernst and Young E&Y program is a worldwide competition that honors the best entrepreneurs and recognizes their positive impact and contributions to America through the creation of value, jobs and advancing social responsibility.

Currently, Bello is a General Partner with Sherbrooke Capital, a venture capital group dedicated to investing in leading, early stage health and wellness companies. He is serves on the board of Boathouse Sports and Adina World Beat Beverages, Sherbrooke portfolio companies. Bello is acting CEO of Adina, a line of fair traded coffees and herbal elixirs under the Adina Holistics brand name.

Prior to founding SoBe, Bello, spent 14 years at National Football League Properties, the marketing arm of the NFL. As President, Bello is credited for building NFL Properties into a sports marketing leader and creating the model by which every major sports league now operates. He was named number 46 of Sporting News’ Most Powerful People in Sports in 1992.

Before the NFL, Bello worked for Pepsi-Cola in marketing and strategic planning capacities and at General Foods where he held product management roles on the Sanka and Maxwell House Brands. He also was Product Director for Keds Brand footwear at Uniroyal.

During four years of service with the United States Navy, Bello achieved the rank of Lieutenant (Senior Grade) and received the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V for meritorious service on riverboats in South Vietnam. He was widely known to the Viet Cong as the “Merchant of the Mekong Delta.”

Bello holds an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College (1974) where he was an Edward Tuck Scholar, and graduated cum laude from Tufts University (1968) with a BA degree in history. He received a Distinguished Service Award from Tufts University in 2005 and has an athletic field at the school dedicated in the family name donated by him and his wife Nancy who also graduated from Tufts in 1969.

His activities include: Board of Overseers (Athletic), Tufts University; Board Member, Dartmouth College’s Tuck Center for Private Equity; Board Member, Gordon Institute for Entrepreneurship at Tufts University, Board of Directors, Rye (NY) YMCA; and Board of Directors, New York Council Boy Scouts of America. He resides in Rye, New York with his wife Nancy and has three children: Lauren an architect in San Francisco, Lindsay an associate product manager at Hawaiian Tropics, and John Michael, a student at Tufts.