I’m passionate about helping you grow and make an impact.

My Story

Like many entrepreneurs, I didn’t start out as one. I began my professional journey as a CPA, honing my financial skills during four transformative and insightful years at Ernst & Young.

Eager to expand my expertise and stimulate my intellectual growth, I decided to go back to school and pursue an MBA at Harvard University.

And at 38, I made one of the biggest decisions of my professional career - leave behind a secure job with four young children in the tow to dive head-first into the world of entrepreneurship.

Fearing mediocrity more than failure, I set-off on my entrepreneurial adventure. Fast forward three decades later, and I have acted as CEO for eight companies and accumulated a wealth of experience that cover the entire lifecycle of a brand - from bootstrapping startups to executing profitable exits.

I have spearheaded ventures that generated nearly $700 million in investor return and created the nation’s leading cold-pressed juice brand, Suja Juice, which was successfully sold for $300 million.

While I’ve been blessed and humbled over the years to have been awarded and recognized for and by some really incredible and prestigious organizations and awards.

I’ve highlighted a few but creating and leading a culture and workforce at Suja that increased revenue in the first four years from $600k in year one; $17m in year two; $44m in year three, $66m in year four and a mind numbing $100 million in 6.5 years! The amazing thing to me is that we did 100% of our own manufacturing which added a ton to the complexityand cash requirements to what we accomplished.

Today I’m proud to say that in year tweleve the Company will generate roughly $300m in annual revenue.

Accolades

With every success I've celebrated as an entrepreneur, I've recognized the importance of acknowledging and learning from my failures. I have gained an immeasurable amount of wisdom from the heartbreaks, and use them as opportunities to teach valuable lessons that empower others on their entrepreneurial path.

This is why I founded TeamChurch - to share my knowledge, forge connections, and turn the dreams of aspiring entrepreneurs into reality.

Prior Owned Companies Where I’ve Been CEO

Core Competencies and Intantangibles

A “3.1x” Investor Return on Investment (median multiple on Jeff’s past eight companies started or acquired), Jeff has the ability to identify winning ideas, businesses to acquire and startups (5 of 8 transactions were winners), and the success of being able to acquire businesses, add value and actually sell them for an above market multiples (median investor return on the eight transactions was 3.1x.)
- Scaled Suja Juice, a health and wellness lifestyle brand from $0 to $100m in 6 years: A comprehensive experience building Suja Juice with many wins and many losses but developmentally the greatest experience of my business career.
- Experience with CPG, branding, scaling, quickly hiring, building and scaling manufacturing and working in a regulated environment (FDA, USDA Organic, etc).
- Recognized as Beverage Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015 by BevNet for all of CPG.
- Professional with proven record of strong leadership, bias for action, team building, personnel development, and cross-functional general management leading to outstanding results.
- Able to thrive in both big CPG (Coca-Cola) and fast paced entrepreneurial start-up environments.
- Charismatic, humble leader who practices to first “seek to understand, then be understood” when interacting with team members
- Successful at Creating and Monetizing Shareholder Value
- Team Builder and Proven Growth Manager
- Ability to Identify and Develop Strategic and Tactical Implementation Objectives
- Strategic Vision and Planning
- Past CPA experience (4 years with Ernst & Young)
- Strong Working Capital and other Balance Sheet Management Competencies
- Fund raising – Completed 11 rounds at Suja and more than 40 rounds over the past 25 years
- Budgets & Forecasts
- Accounting & Reporting
- Risk Management
- Work with Institutional and Private Capital
Jeff has built a highly successful career based on the treating others as they would want to be treated and pushing team members out of their comfort zones to “laterally” think through how cross functionally the problem can be solved. Jeff also has a high-risk tolerance and a strong ability to keep calm, particularly under situations with extreme stress. Finally, Jeff’s integrity for 30 years stands beyond reproach, fortunately the transactions, both good and bad are well documented on the internet.
Nika Water – brought clean water, education and micro finance to 32,000 human beings in Nicaragua, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mexico, to name a few. We brought clean water, education and micro finance to the women and children of the various villages.

Beyond the Boardroom

Even more important than my success in the arena of entrepreneurship has been my wife Linda’s and my grand adventure, 35 years and counting of building an amazing family with four great kids as the foundation. Below are a few of the personal milestones of mine:

Family

Married for 35 years to my incredibly awesome wife Linda, and a dedicated father to 4 incredible kids.

Hobbies

Beyond getting outdoors, I have always gravitated towards hobbies that not only push my mind and body to the edge of their limits, but also allowed me to immerse myself in some of the most epic environments on Earth.