About
Nick Bell is an Australian serial entrepreneur best known for turning a few hundred dollars in start-up cash into a digital-agency empire that now spans more than a dozen brands on five continents. He founded WME Group from a bedroom in 2008 and, within nine years, sold the agency for A $39 million while it ranked among Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 three years running. Today his holding company, Superist, employs more than 1,600 people and serves marquee clients such as Mercedes-Benz, Uber, L’Oréal and Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph. The Australian Financial Review has repeatedly listed him on its Young Rich List, estimating his fortune at well over A $500 million.
Beyond boardrooms, Bell has become a familiar face on Australian television. After advising on Celebrity Apprentice Australia in 2022, he joined the judging panel for the relaunched Shark Tank Australia in 2024, bringing his hands-on digital marketing know-how to prime-time audiences and budding founders nationwide.
Before Fame
Bell grew up on a small cattle farm in rural Victoria, where dawn chores and endless fencing jobs forged the work ethic he now credits for his success. Eager to see the world, he saved every cent from odd jobs, flew to London after high school, then returned to enrol in marketing at university—only to quit after six weeks because the lectures left him restless.
Back in Melbourne, he waited tables, hustled into recruitment, and rose to general manager by his mid-twenties. A first stab at entrepreneurship—an acne-care supplement—flopped and emptied his savings. Undeterred, he spotted opportunity in search-engine rankings, spent A $400 on a basic website, and started cold-calling 300 prospects a day. That gritty routine laid the foundation for WME and the wider agency network he leads today.
Trivia
- Relentless caller: At WME’s launch he dialed as many as 300 businesses daily, focusing on firms stuck on Google’s second page.
- Animal sanctuary dream: Having been traumatised when a childhood pet cow was sent to slaughter, he is buying Victorian farmland to create a free-roaming rescue haven for livestock.
- Television regular: Besides Shark Tank and Celebrity Apprentice, he appeared in the 2024 longevity documentary series Do You Want to Live Forever?, discussing gene-therapy experiments.
- Young Rich alumnus: The AFR first recorded his wealth at A $274 million in 2020; it has climbed sharply since thanks to new agency launches and tech investments.
Family Life
Bell encountered his future wife, Dutch-raised investment banker Fei Chen, during a Hong Kong business trip in 2014. They married three years later, and Chen now serves as operations chief for Superist’s Asia businesses while Bell stays close to the Melbourne headquarters. The couple juggle board meetings with bedtime stories for their three young daughters, crediting good communication—and Bell’s joking admission that “my wife is basically the boss”—for balancing family and enterprise.
Associated With
On Shark Tank Australia Bell invests alongside tech-commerce phenom Davie Fogarty, e-commerce maven Jane Lu, telecom pioneer Maxine Horne, and North-American guest shark Robert Herjavec. Earlier TV projects put him shoulder-to-shoulder with Lord Alan Sugar and Boost Juice founder Janine Allis on Celebrity Apprentice. In the private sector he has partnered with Netflix visionary Marc Randolph and taken stakes in dozens of start-ups ranging from reputation-management firm Removify to AI-writing tool Frase.
