Leadership
DAVID ROTH
founder and chief entrepreneurship officer
RICK BACHER
partner and chief creative officer
About DAVID
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A serial (and cereal) entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in launching or supporting new ventures, David founded and serves as chief entrepreneurship officer of Innovestment Partners. He is also the founder and partner in charge of strategy for the brand staging firm, Get Stirred Up. David gained significant notoriety in the area of entrepreneurial/corporate partnerships from Cereality Cereal Bar & Café, the popular all-cereal restaurant franchise he co-founded with Rick Bacher. He served as CEO and chairman of that venture prior to its acquisition by the parent company of Cold Stone Creamery in 2007. At that time, there were seven company-owned units in operation and 26 franchise-owned units under contract. David secured start-up funding for Cereality from PepsiCo, as well as a key licensing agreement with Mars for Cereality-branded mass market snack foods. Old Navy, Dodge and Dreamworks were additional strategic partners under his stewardship. Earlier in his career, David ran a marketing firm that focused primarily on the media industry, following roles as an associate publisher at Random House and a consultant to The New York Times and Time-Life Custom Publishing. His publishing industry (and entrepreneurial) experience began when he founded and served as publisher of Palate and Spirit, the first magazine exclusively focused on culinary travel, sponsored by Ritz Carlton Hotels. David began his career working with Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank on internal and external communications. He holds an M.Ed. from Harvard University.
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About RICK
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As a graphic designer and art director, Rick has a keen ability to bring both product and business ideas to life in a visually arresting way. Having worked on both the agency and client sides of the business, he approaches the design process with a unique blend of aesthetic and strategic acumen. Rick’s portfolio showcases award-winning corporate identities, packaging, marketing collateral and new product designs for a broad range of brands — from technology companies to broadcasting networks, consumer packaged goods manufacturers, and professional service firms. He also is known for his bold and creative approach to designing retail environments — most notably for the restaurant chain, Cereality Cereal Bar & Café. A co-founder and chief creative officer of Cereality, Rick was the brain behind the brand’s distinctive look and feel, designing all elements of the brand experience — including its identity and all communications, café design and layout, and award-winning packaging. Rick’s work has been acknowledged in various publications and is a featured case study in the design book Designing Brand Identity. After receiving his BFA from York University in Toronto, Rick began his career in the corporate design department of Nortel Networks. He then served as art director for The James Beard Foundation in New York, before joining Custom Marketing Partners, where he first teamed up with David Roth in their unique design/business partnership. Rick serves as chief creative officer at Innovestment Partners and is also creative director at the brand staging firm, Get Stirred Up.
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