About Peter Bell
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, and
educated in England, I am an engineer by training and a marketer by
profession. I am now a US citizen and am an avid snow skier during the winter and
keen sailor / windsurfer whenever the wind speed is up.
Currently I am
working on the
Multi Functional Rural Fuel
Platform, a humanitarian effort.
Renewable Fuel Products – Silicon Valley - USA
Co-founded
RFP in 2007 to develop a renewable diesel refining system, more info at:
www.renewablefuelproducts.comDistribution Drive – Dallas, Texas - USA
Founded
Distribution Drive in 2003 and co-founded the BioWillie brand of biodiesel
with the legendary Texas entertainer, Willie Nelson, in 2004. Distribution
Drive was acquired by a NASDAQ listed company in 2005.
Flagship Systems, Inc. – Dallas, Texas -
USA
Was
the co-founder & CEO of Flagship Systems, Inc., the publisher of
the accounting software system, Flagship. I started Flagship with my
friend and business partner, David Parsley by buying the Flagship
accounting package from the Sage Group's Dallas based DacEasy
subsidiary. Our successes included running a profitable business for 9
years, generating many successful system sales, being the first
accounting software to offer its product as a rental application via
the Internet, recruiting an international dealer base, managing up to
20 people in diverse roles and successfully raising venture capital.
Earlier life
I left South Africa in 1979 and was
educated as an Engineer in England. My first entrepreneurial attempt was right after
school with a venture called Bell Hydro Power. After college, I went to the USA for the first time
and shared a house with a bunch of Kiwi's and spent a year as a ski bum in
Aspen Colorado. Working nights at Avis rent-a-car and skiing during the
day made for a very special year in the Colorado Rocky mountains. I then
spent the off season driving from coast to coast until I ran out of money
and went back to England. This eye opening trip created the desire to come
back to permanently live in America. On
return from the USA, I worked for a light manufacturing company in the
Midlands of England before joining a small software Value Added Reseller,
returning to the US in the mid 1990's.
The Book
I hope to complete a book one day
detailing all the weird and wonderful things that have happened to me
during my career as an entrepreneur, the title is "The Trials and
Tribulations of the Small Business Man". I hope this will be a book that
helps the next generation of entrepreneurs realize what they are in for
and helps them fill in the gaps that a formal MBA leaves out.