John Bello

Bello grew up in Plainville, Connecticut, the son of the late Generoso "Jerry" and Edith (Melito) Bello. He 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. Bello went on to matriculate at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, on a Navy ROTC scholarship. There, he played football for two years, was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity, and played drums in a rock band called "The What Four." He earned a bachelor's degree cum laude in history in 1968. While at Tufts he also met the former Nancy Nelson, to whom he was married in 1969.

Naval career

Upon his graduation from Tufts, Bello was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy and served a four-year tour that included a tour of duty 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 (PBR) squadrons. He was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V for meritorious service. In 1972, after Vietnam, Bello was assigned to the Moffett Field Naval Air Station Moffett Field as the Navy Exchange Officer. He resigned his commission as a Lieutenant to attend graduate school.

Early business career

Bello entered the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College, graduating with an MBA in 1974. While at Tuck he was named an Edward Tuck Scholar. After Tuck, his first business position was in brand management at General Foods, where he worked on Sanka and Maxwell House coffee brands. After an interim experience in athletic footwear as product director for Keds 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.

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 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. 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 - since delisted and now OTC), 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.

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, and Rye, New York, with his wife Nancy. The couple has three grown children, Lauren, Lindsay and John. As well as four grandchildren, Benjamin, Archibald, Beatrix and Poppy.