The Healthy Food Project Leadership Team
Steve Nickolas - Founder & Chair of the Board
Mr. Nickolas has over 34 years of international and domestic management experience in the beverage and food science industries. His experience is broad-based and includes distribution, marketing, operations and manufacturing.
He started his career with Anheuser-Busch in Southern California in 1973 and by 1980, he opened the first bottled water company in the state of Hawaii.
From 1981-1990, Mr. Nickolas developed bottled water companies globally including: Hawaii, Micronesia, Indonesia, Philippines, Israel, Egypt and Germany as well as several companies in North America.
He founded Apani Bottled Water in Phoenix, Arizona in 1990, becoming the first bottled water company licensed by the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB.
In 1998, he founded Beverage Images, Inc., becoming the first bottled water company licensed by all major Hollywood studios, including Sony, Universal, Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Marvel Comics.
Mr. Nickolas has provided consulting services and has served in a variety of management positions for a number of major food and beverage companies including Nestles, Whitlock Packaging, P&G, Suntory, General Mills, Tyson Foods, Kraft Foods and others. He has also worked with major companies including: Anheuser Busch, PTX Foods, The Rock Resorts, and The Hyatt Regency Group.
He has earned degrees in Economics and Government from The Claremont Colleges and postgraduate studies at Cal-Poly Pomona.
Naren Jauhal - Chief Financial Officer
Naren brings to the Healthy Food Project, a unique combination of financial planning and analysis, business development, strategy, and R& D experience. Naren has over 25 years of management experience covering consulting, marketing, project management, market research, strategic planning, business development and financial control areas. He has worked directly with CEOs, Division Managers and senior executive teams in a wide range of industries including Aerospace, Environmental Engineering, Semiconductors and Wireless Communications.
In his early career he managed the rapid expansion of two small consulting engineering companies. Later with Rockwell International, he created an integrated planning system for managing B-1B bomber production and then led the strategic planning and financial control organizations. In the semiconductor industry he was part of the team that successfully grew wireless revenues from $20 million to over $400 million in a span of 5 years. He has managed product development and reengineering projects in many industries. He has studied under Peter Drucker and is a keen student of organizational change and leadership.
Naren holds these degrees: Advanced MBA Management Sciences from Claremont Graduate School M.B.A. Finance from Indiana University, M.S.E. Aerospace Engineering from University of Michigan and a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Dr Jessie Jean-Rush - Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Jean-Rush is an accomplished Physician, a retired Military Officer, a Medical Director and Medical Consultant.
Dr. Jean-Rush earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Barnard College, Columbia University in New York. She completed her Medical training and graduated from State University of New York Buffalo School of Medicine. Dr. Rush completed three years of internship and Residency in Pediatrics with an additional year of fellowship training in Ambulatory Pediatrics at New York Medical College, Westchester County Medical Center.
Dr. Jean-Rush held a commission as a Medical Officer in The United States Air Force after completing her internship, residency and fellowship training in Pediatrics at New York Medical College in 1989. She served as an active duty Captain in The United States Air Force for over 9 years. While assigned to Andrews Air Force Base, Dr. Rush provided expert clinical leadership to the medical students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and was awarded ‘Outstanding Pediatric Teacher’ by the third year medical students.
After her retirement from the military, Dr. Rush was employed as a Medical Director for several Medicaid and Medicare programs in Arizona. Dr. Rush is passionate about educating the public in the area of Pediatric preventative healthcare, diabetes, obesity and nutrition programs. Her ability to interact, communicate and collaborate with network and community physicians, hospital leaders and other vendors regarding clinical care and services is exemplary.
