Steve Jbara is a driven, innovative entrepreneur whose business interests lie in sports, advertising, finance, and technology.

Steve Jbara is the Chief Strategy Officer for Air Company, a CO2 technology firm based in Brooklyn. He serves as CEO of Atomic Honey, a Detroit-based advertising agency, and Chief Strategy Officer of WaitTime, a startup also based in the Motor City that has developed artificial intelligence software capable of providing real-time insights into crowd behavior at sporting events.

He is also the founder and president of the Grand Rapids Gold (formerly the Drive), the Denver Nuggets’ affiliate in the NBA G-League (formerly the Development League). In 2026, Jbara made NBA G League history by becoming the first executive in league history to win Executive of the Year honors three consecutive seasons. Voted on by fellow team presidents, the award recognizes his leadership, innovation, and continued impact in growing the Grand Rapids Gold organization.

His entrepreneurial journey began in 2013, three years after his graduation from Trine University in Angola, Ind. That’s when Steve Jbara bought a Development League team that had been based in Springfield, Mass., and moved it to Grand Rapids. It began play the following year as an affiliate of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, and became the first team in league history to turn a profit in its first season. On his watch, the team also vaulted to No. 1 in the league in merchandise sales, while consistently ranking among the top five in sponsorship revenue and gate receipts.

In 2021, the team entered into a hybrid arrangement with the Nuggets, with the parent club taking charge of basketball operations and Steve Jbara and his team of investors, an LLC known as the SSJ Group, continuing to oversee business operations and community engagement.

Jbara’s foray into basketball served as a springboard for various other business ventures. He started and sold two startups, one in the CO2 recycling space focused on microbreweries, and another a tech startup focused on peer-influenced shopping that was acquired by Amazon.

In 2019, Steve Jbara launched Atomic Honey, which uses a services-for-equity model to foster startups’ growth.

Steve Jbara, a native of Kalamazoo, Mich., earned degrees in marketing and computer science from Trine University in 2010. He spent the next four years working for Ford Motor Company and R.L. Polk in Detroit. The latter provides insights and data to the automotive industry.