John Solbakken

John Solbakken is an American-Lovian of Norwegian origins. He is the owner of El Toro company, which sells sports equipment and accessories.

John was born to Carl Solbakken, an American doctor, whose father was from Norway. His mother Anna, died from cancer when he was only seven years old. John has an older brother, named Christian, who is a surgeon at Caritas Medical Center.

John studied business administration and in 1992 he opened a small clothing shop in Little Europe. In 2000 he sold it, only to found a sports company, Athletik. At that time, there was not much competition with other companies and thus his business was profitable. In 2005, Athletik started selling its own products, with a relative success.

Due to the global economic crisis, John saw his gains decreasing dramatically. The less risky solution was to sell the company, but he didn't do that. Instead, he prefered to merge it with D-Sports, a small but quite healthy company. It seems that he made the right choise, as El Toro is the biggest such company in Lovia. Currently, John is considering creating a holding, comprising more businesses.