Jeff Church

Jeff Church (born August 24, 1961) is the cofounder of NIKA Water Company, a social entrepreneurial model that donates its profits to alleviate poverty, and Suja Juice, an organic juice company in California.

Church graduated from Michigan State University in 1983 with a B.A. in accounting and was named one of the top twenty-five graduating seniors out of 8,000 students. He later attended Harvard Business School and graduated with a Masters in Business Administration in 1988.

Between graduating from Michigan State and attending Harvard, Church worked as a CPA for Ernst & Young.

Prior to cofounding NIKA, Church was CEO of Universal Building Products, a middle-market concrete forming and shoring company – and purchased, built and sold several companies through his private equity firm, Autus Capital including Aztec Concrete Accessories, Lynx Professional Grills and Pool Tables.

Church co-founded Suja Juice in 2012. He also founded Suja Elements, a refreshment line that uses cold-pressed organic juice, blended fruits and "superfoods", available exclusively at Whole Foods Market. In the summer of 2015, Suja announced an investment and distribution partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, as well as a minority investment from Goldman Sachs; Church played a key role in brokering these deals, which helped to expand Suja’s distribution to almost 50% more locations, including new venues such as college campuses and big grocery chains. In 2015, Suja was named #2 on the list of Forbes America’s Most Promising Companies.

The combination of seeing the impact of the global clean water crisis first-hand during a 2008 visit to Kenya combined with the ideas of his children and the inspiration of Craig Kielburger of Free The Children, led Church to form NIKA with business school classmate Mike Stone in March 2009. NIKA translates from Zulu as “to give.”

After costs and taxes, NIKA Water Company directs 100 percent of its profits to alleviate water and sanitation needs in impoverished countries. It is the first bottled water company to donate all profits from sales to charity and be certified as carbon neutral by the Carbonfund.org. As the business model, Church used the example of Paul Newman’s company, Newman’s Own, and its charitable arm, Newman’s Own Foundation.

...
Wikipedia