Joth Ricci, who decided to move on from job as prexy/ceo of Jones Soda as co moves to close merger with Reed's Inc (BBI, Mar 9), is teaming up with entrepreneur Bill Anderson and his First Beverage Group's private equity div. A day after Tues announcement of Reed's/Jones merger plan, LA-based First Beverage said Ricci is signing on as managing dir of operations for unit, called First Beverage Capital, where he'll work with managing partner Michael Wong to oversee firm's portfolio cos, including Activate functional waters and spirits developer Altamar Group. "Joth's wealth of experience will be a tremendous addition to our team and our partners," said First Beverage chmn/ceo Anderson, referring to resume that includes serving as gm of giant Columbia Distributing in Portland, Ore, and earlier tenure in sales and marketing management slots at McNeil Consumer Healthcare/Johnson & Johnson.