The Innovate State Speaker Series brings both emerging and accomplished Spartans back to campus for a fireside chat-style interview. These 60-minute sessions offer the chance for guests to share their perspectives on a wide array of topics like innovation, startup life, investments, and career paths. Students get the opportunity to hear firsthand about the hard knocks of the entrepreneurship & innovation hustle to maintaining work/life balance. These are stories of success, stories of failures, and stories of uncommon will—and you do not want to miss them.
Innovate State kicks-off at 6 p.m. ET and are free to the community. Events will be offered in a hybrid-format, offering attendance options in-person & virtually. Early registration is highly encouraged.
About our Speaker
Jeff Church, CEO & Co-Founder, Rowdy Energy
Jeff Church, a reputable beverage entrepreneur, is CEO & co-founder of Rowdy Energy Drinks, the “better-for-you” energy drink containing electrolytes and nootropics, which he launched with two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch in 2020. He previously founded Suja Juice, which he scaled to $150 million in revenue and $25 million in EBITDA in eight years. Suja Juice was determined by Inc. 500 to be the 2016 fastest-growing food and beverage brand in the United States in 2016. Jeff became the president of his first business at the age of 27. Over the last 25 years, Church has held the role of CEO of seven different companies, where he led all aspects of acquiring and/or starting each uniquely disruptive business, all while fully managing investment capital raises. Jeff was named Ernest & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in San Diego in 2016, Bevnet Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2015, and is a New York Times Best-Selling Co-Author for “The Suja Juice Solution.” Church is recognized in national news outlets, including Wall Street Journal and Forbes, as a leading beverage expert.
Also, Jeff is a graduate of the Eli Broad College of Business at MSU (’83, Accounting), and completed his MBA at Harvard University in 1988.
