Christopher Burch, founder and CEO of Burch Creative Capital, has been an entrepreneur and active investor across a wide range of industries for nearly thirty years.
He has contributed to the rise of multiple technology and luxury brands, including Faena Hotel + Universe, Jawbone, Tory Burch, Poppin and Voss Water. In July 2014, Mr. Burch announced a partnership with beloved entertainer, Ellen DeGeneres, to launch her lifestyle brand, ED by Ellen DeGeneres. Later that year, he launched Cocoon9, luxury prefab homes with space-saving floor plans, contemporary design, energy efficient features and sophisticated finishes. Most recently, Burch has devoted efforts to his award-winning hospitality brand, Nihi Sumba, a boutique resort in southeastern Indonesia, which was named the #1 Hotel in the World two years in a row by Travel + Leisure magazine.
Burch has supported the development of several other lifestyle and consumer products brands including BaubleBar, Blink Health, Brad’s Raw Foods, Chubbies, and Soludos.
Mr. Burch relies increasingly on his ability to find the nexus between innovation and implementation with his intuitive understanding of consumer behavior and his experience utilizing superior sourcing infrastructure and direct-to-consumer channels.
Beyond his professional investing, Mr. Burch has a deep passion for charitable projects and has contributed funding toward substantial research and philanthropic initiatives at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, NYU Langone, The Sumba Foundation and his alma maters Tilton School and Ithaca College, among others.
Mr. Burch’s contribution to Mt Sinai is dedicated to the ongoing research of Dr Xiu-Min Li at the Center for Integrative Medicine for Allergies and Wellness. Through his generosity, Dr Li and her team are expanding the investigation and use of alternative therapies and her project “Weight loss with or without Asthma.”
Mr. Burch passionately champions NYU Langone’s Patient-Centered Care Curriculum, an initiative established to optimize physician-patient communication and patient experience through empathy, compassion, and caring. Launched in 2014 in partnership with Dr. Mark Pochapin, director of the division of Gastroenterology at NYU Langone, the curriculum consists of a number of educational activities, including lectures, roundtables, and educational objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) simulation sessions.
The Sumba Foundation’s aim is to provide humanitarian aid by fostering community-based projects that impact health, including medical access and malaria control, nutrition, education, water and income-generation, while preserving and respecting the culture and traditions of the Sumbanese people. With the enthusiastic support of Mr Burch, who covers and his resort, Nihi, the Foundation has expanded its lunch program for primary schools, increased the number of water wells for villages, and equipped medical clinics with staffing and supplies, dramatically reducing Malaria by 85% in affected areas.
Mr. Burch has been a generous donor to his alma maters, Tilton School and Ithaca College. Through his support Tilton School developed the Burch Athletic Field, the first ever outdoor turf field built on campus, fulfilling a promise he made to himself as a student that he would one day build a turf field so students at the NH prep school could practice their sports outside all year round. His donations to Ithaca College have funded the J. Christopher Burch Endowed Scholarship for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which supports an IC student who exhibits exceptional talent in both creativity and entrepreneurship. In addition, his gifts provide the philanthropy behind the School of Business’s annual Business Idea and Business Plan Competitions.
