J.J. Childress currently leads Microsoft’s TechSpark Initiative in Texas, an economic development and civic engagement program aimed at helping communities develop the talent for the opportunities of the 21st Century. He has designed and launched innovation accelerators, broadband access, digital inclusion motions across the K-Career spectrum, and entrepreneurship programs in the United States and Mexico. 

He is a born and raised El Pasoan and a serial entrepreneur who has founded several separate and diverse businesses from a manufacturing company to an independent registered investment advisory firm.  He was recognized as the Small Business Administration’s Young Entrepreneur in 2017. 

JJ is a proud graduate from the University of Texas at El Paso with a BBA in Finance and Accounting, as well as an MBA.  He is also a graduate of Stanford University’s Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative program through the Graduate School of Business, and the University of Washington’s Accelerating Social Transformation program through the Bothell School of Business and Evans School of Public Policy & Governance.