Joe Haro
Joe Haro was born in the suburbs of Chicago and moved to the Garden State of New Jersey when he was 10 years old. He attended Clifton High School where he became a football and track star and later received a scholarship to continue his education and athletic career at UNLV. “Jersey Joe,” as he quickly became known, started out as a running back and later moved to cornerback and excelled in special teams. As he was entering his junior season, Hall of Fame Coach John Robinson asked Joe if he was interested in returning to running back, an offer Joe could not resist considering Coach Robinson coached the likes of Heisman trophy winners Charles White and Marcus Allen. Coming off a 31-14 dismantling of SEC power Arkansas in the 2000 Las Vegas Bowl, Jersey Joe had his coming out party in the first game of the season against that same Arkansas team in 2001. Joe rushed for 130 plus yards and never looked back from that point on. He rushed for over 1,100 yards in 2001 and over 2,000 plus yards in his career. He graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism in 2002 and finished his UNLV football career as team captain and UNLV’s fourth all-time leading rusher.
In 2002, Joe tried out for the Dallas Cowboys and New York Jets. Although his football dreams would shortly end after those tryouts, Coach Robinson gave him some of the best advice he would receive in his life — “Rather than bouncing around on practice squads for a few years, use your intelligence, personality and work ethic to do something much bigger in your life.”
From then on, Joe utilized his relationships and the information received on campus to begin his business career. At that time, he worked for Wendoh Media as its Director of Sales, which led him to the top energy drink company in the world, Red Bull North America. Joe quickly ascended the ranks during his 6 plus years at Red Bull where he oversaw the on-premise resort sales for the southwestern United States. He managed prestigious groups such as MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Sands and Wynn Las Vegas. He was also in charge of managing a $5 million annual budget and, while doing so, grew his business an average of 8%, all during some of the most pivotal years of the Great Recession.
In 2014, Joe was approached by one of his customers, Angel Management, an entity that managed night clubs, pools, lounges and restaurants in Las Vegas. Angel Management, since renamed Hakkasan Group, was poised to become a global company with a major international expansion plan, and Joe was asked if he would be interested in running the brand partnerships department in the United States. Joe accepted the position, and currently manages a massive U.S. beverage program as well as working with luxury brands nationwide, including Pernod Ricard, Moet Hennessey, Bacardi USA, Louis Vuitton, UBER and Creative Artists Agency.
Aside from his passion and dedication serving as Vice President of the UNLV Football Foundation, Joe is heavily involved with other local organizations including the Las Vegas Business Academy and the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame. As a result, Joe was recognized by VegasInc in 2016 as one of Southern Nevada’s 40 Under 40 business professionals. Las Vegas is his home, and the community and university have been very good to him, so he is devoted to giving back to those who are like-minded and want to make a difference in Las Vegas.
A notorious sports fan and gym rat, Joe enjoys traveling the world and spending time with his dog Cubby, who got his name from his beloved sports team.