Biography

Joey Saputo is the owner of the Montreal Impact and Stade Saputo. He was the founding president of the Montreal Impact in 1993, when the Saputo Group was the sole owner of the team. He later spearheaded the construction of Stade Saputo, the team’s home, inaugurated at Olympic Park in Montreal on May 19, 2008, and expanded in 2012. During his presidency, the team also moved up to Major League Soccer (MLS), the top-tier professional soccer league in Canada and the United States, in 2012. 

Professional sports 

Under his leadership, professional soccer’s popularity has soared to unprecedented heights in Quebec and the club has become one of the most respected in North America, winning three playoff championships (in second division) and three Canadian Championships. The Impact also reached the Concacaf Champions League final in April 2015, a first for a Canadian club and only the second time for an MLS franchise. The following year, the team clinched a berth in the Eastern Conference Final in its third playoff appearance in six MLS seasons.

In 2010, he completed the pyramid of soccer development in Quebec with the creation of the Academy, followed by the Pre-Academy, which features nine Montreal Impact youth teams with players ranging from the ages of 7 to 19. 

In 2014, he acquired Bologna FC, a second-division Italian team that was promoted to Serie A the following year.

Joey Saputo is also part of the MLS Strategic Committee and a member of the MLS Board of Governors. 

Corporate 

In 1985, Joey Saputo began working for Saputo Inc., a dairy processing company founded by his family in 1954 that specializes in the production, commercialization and distribution of cheese. In 1990, he was named president and chief operating officer, dairy products division (USA). After occupying various positions within the organization, Mr. Saputo was named senior vice president of commercial and business development in January 2004. Joey Saputo left Saputo Inc. in 2007 to dedicate more time to the Montreal Impact and to his holding company, Free2Be.

Joey Saputo was also very involved in the management of his family’s assets consolidated under Jolina Capital Inc., an asset management company. He is currently an advisor to Jolina Capital, which is a shareholder and/or majority shareholder in various companies in the food, transportation, softwood lumber and real estate sectors. 

Since 2014, he is the president of Arbec and chairman of the board of both Remabec and Arbec, the two largest integrated companies of forest products, with annual revenues of $600M.

Since 2016, Joey Saputo is also on the board of directors of Groupe Petra, a private management firm involved in real estate and is on the board of directors of the publicly traded company Transforce.

Community

Joey Saputo was a member of the Italian-Canadian Community Foundation of Quebec since 2000 and was also its president from 2014 to 2017. He has been involved in all of its fundraising efforts and campaigns. He is also on the board of directors of Procure, a non-profit organization whose goal is to help prevent and cure prostate cancer. Since 2013, he also serves as the official spokesperson for the Montreal Impact Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps underprivileged children and their families. 

Joey Saputo is the father of four boys.