Joey Saputo

Joey Saputo (born September 25, 1964) is a Canadian businessman and the president of the Montreal Impact soccer team he founded in 1993, and Saputo Stadium, named after his family's dairy products company.[1] He is the Chairman of the Italian football club Bologna F.C. 1909.

Family

Joey Saputo is the son of Emanuele "Lino" Saputo, the founder and head of Saputo, a Canadian dairy products company that also markets a range of other items like spaghetti sauce. Saputo's other holdings include the largest dairy company in Canada, Vachon Inc., the snack company responsible for the Jos. Louis dessert.[2] Joey Saputo has four sons.[1]

Career

Saputo Inc.

In 1985 Joey Saputo began working for the family business, Saputo Inc., a dairy processing company founded by his father Lino Saputo in 1954. In 1990, he was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer 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.[1]

Montreal Impact

In 2007 Joey Saputo left the family business—older brother Lino A. Saputo, Jr., is CEO and President—[3] in order to dedicate more time to his holding company, Free2Be, and, more importantly, Montreal Impact, the Montreal-based professional soccer team he helped found in 1993.

When Saputo was the founding president in 1993, the Saputo Group was the team's sole owner; however, under his leadership, in 1999, the club was sold to a group of shareholders. In 2002, the team was incorporated as a non-profit organization, and he played a "pivotal role in the re-launch of the club and returned as President. He then spearheaded the construction of Saputo Stadium, the team’s new home, inaugurated at Olympic Park, Montreal, on May 19, 2008.[1]

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 (MLS) and oversaw the Saputo Stadium's expansion. Under his leadership, "professional soccer’s popularity has soared to unprecedented heights in Quebec", with the Impact having won three championships, two Canadian championships, and a quarterfinal berth in the CONCACAF Champions League.[1]

Bologna F.C.

Saputo is the majority shareholder of the network of businessmen who bought the Italian football team in September 2014. He occupies the position of Chairman of the club. After the resignation of the President Joe Tacopina, he has become the sole owner of the team.

Other activities

In addition to his work at the Saputo Group and the Impact, Joey Saputo has also been very involved in managing his family’s assets, consolidated under Jolina Capital ("the Saputo family company"),[4] an asset management company where he was president from March 2001 to January 2004.[5] Jolina Capital is a shareholder—and frequently a majority shareholder—in companies spanning sectors as diverse as food, transportation, softwood lumber, and real estate.[1]

Joey Saputo is currently on the board of directors of TransForce, a publicly traded Canadian transport and logistics company, where he has been an independent director since 1996.[6]

Community service

Joey Saputo is also actively 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,[7] the Italian-Canadian Community Foundation (his father immigrated from Montelepre, Sicily, in the 1950s).[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Official Biography – Joey Saputo". Montreal Impact. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  2. ↑ "Ownership | Montreal Impact". Impactmontreal.com. Retrieved Oct 25, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Management Team". Saputo Group. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "Dairy food producer Saputo increases quarterly earnings". The Globe and Mail. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  5. ↑ "Company Overview of Jolina Capital Inc.". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  6. ↑ "Board of Directors". Investor Relations. TransForce. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  7. ↑ "Board of Directors". PROCURE. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  8. ↑ "Board of Fiduciaries". Who We Are. Italian-Canadian Community Foundation. Retrieved 2 January 2014.

External links

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