David Jenkins

In April 2011 Jenkins sold the Designer Whey business including the protein powders, bars and shakes business to Designer Protein, LLC., a subsidiary of Athena Wellness Brands, LLC.

In September 2006 NEXT Proteins sold its protein bar business and factory in Minden, Nevada to Forward Foods.

Jenkins was, for a few years in early 2000s, the US Representative for The Edinburgh Academy's Academical Club.

In 1998 former British 400-metre Olympic silver medalist Roger Black dedicated a chapter titled "The Jenkins Factor," in his autobiography How Long is the Course ISBN 0-233-99644-3 to Jenkins who was helping advise him in the final months of his 1996 Olympic preparation. Jenkins was credited with changing Black's philosophy on sports and competition.

Jenkins founded Xipe Press in 1996 and published the book Underground Bodyopus: Militant Weight Loss and Recomposition. The book was authored by two-time convicted felon Dan Duchaine. Duchaine, the self-styled "Steroid Guru" was an outspoken proponent of the use of drugs in sport and was credited with popularising the use of such illegal substances as GHB (4-Hydroxybutanoic acid) and Clenbuterol in American sport. After Duchaine's death Jenkins became CEO of DuChaine's drug supplement company and is the source of Jenkins' wealth today.

In 1993 he set up a partnership with Dan Duchaine, a well known steroid guru and two-time convicted felon, and founded Next Proteins, a company which produced dietary supplements for athletes and bodybuilders. When Duchaine died Jenkins became the chairman of Next Nutrition.

In 1988 Jenkins started his nutrition company and began working on a protein powder, convinced that its muscle-building properties could be marketed as a healthy, legal alternative to steroids. This is when he created and launched Pro Optibol.

Jenkins founded and incorporated NEXT Nutrition, based in Carlsbad, California, in 1988.

In January of 1986 Jenkins met with Juan Javier Macklis, who owned Laboratorios Milanos, a pharmaceutical plant in Tijuana, Mexico, that was contracted to supply medicines for the Mexican government. Together, Jenkins and Macklis manufactured anabolic steroids. With the help of Macklis' trusted colleagues, Jenkins then smuggled the drugs into the United States, which at the time was a felony. However, there was no precedent for a smuggling case of this magnitude, not to mention anabolic steroids had yet to be codified under the Controlled Substances Act in the U.S. A federal indictment filed in the U.S. Federal Courts in San Diego named Jenkins as the mastermind of a complex network of more than 33 steroid-dealing co-conspirators. In April 1987, weeks before federal prosecutors filed the indictment, Jenkins was arrested and later entered a guilty plea for the trafficking of steroids worth approximately $100 million through the Tijuana border crossing. It was reported that at one time Jenkins and co-conspirators Dan Duchaine and William Dillon were responsible for up to 70% of the steroids trafficked in the United States.

He competed at the 1982 European Championships in the 4×400–metre relay team which won the silver medal in this event.

Jenkins became involved in drug trafficking in the 1980s and it is estimated that at one time he was responsible for up to 70% of the steroids trafficked in the United States. Jenkins was convicted in October 1987 of smuggling $100 million of illegal anabolic steroids into the United States, a felony, and was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in December 1988. Following his early release from prison via a Rule 35 sentence reduction for becoming an informant, Jenkins was released from prison after only 10 months for time served. Then he grew a legal fitness products enterprise in the form of NEXT Proteins. He owns several issued patents in the US and 41 other countries around his invention of carbonated protein drinks. Referring to David Hemery, the gold medal winner of the 400 metres hurdles at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Jenkins told The Independent newspaper of Britain that, "I sold him down the river, and that wasn't cool." His brother Roger Jenkins is also a former athlete and was a prominent tax avoidance executive at Barclays Bank who faces a possible 22 years in prison after having been charged by the Serious Fraud Office (United Kingdom) with bank fraud.

In 1978 he won a gold medal competing for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada in the 4 × 100 m relay, alongside Cameron Sharp, Allan Wells and Drew McMaster.

In 1977 Jenkins participated in the first IAAF World Cup in the 4×400-metre relay at the Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf, West Germany. He also won the 200 metres at the Jubilee Games event.

In 1976, Jenkins was awarded a Travelling Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts. His project's title was "Community sport participation and provision", and the fellowship enabled him to visit the United States and West Germany.

In 1976 and 1980 Jenkins placed seventh in the 400-metre final at the Summer Olympics.

In 1975 he was United States of America 400-metre champion, with his fastest time of his career 44.93 which was a British record at the time. In 1975, Jenkins and his brother, Roger Jenkins, represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland v. Finland at Crystal Palace, London as the UK's No. 1 and No. 2 400-metre runners.

Scottish documentary company, Pelicula Films, featured David Jenkins during his training in 1975 as he prepared for the 1976 Olympic Games (Montreal, Quebec, CA). The film, The Long Sprint: Diary of an Olympic Athlete, follows Jenkins from his training, races and the Olympic Games heats. Jenkins qualified for the Olympic 400-metre finals but did not medal. The documentary film was directed by Michael Alexander and won the Gold Grand Prix Award in the British International Sport Film and Television Festival, the Toronto Film Festival and the Turin Film Festival in 1977.

In 1974 he won the silver medal on the 400 metres at the European Athletics Championships in Rome as well as the gold medal in the 4x 400-metre with his teammates Glen Cohen, William Hartley and Alan Pascoe. The race announcer remarked that Jenkins had the "greatest run of his life", when he won the 4 × 400 m relay.

Both David and his brother Roger feature prominently in the book A Life In A Day In A Year by Peter Hoffmann which describes their athletics training at Meadowbank Sports Centre, Edinburgh and their racing careers between 1973 and 1978.

He went on to compete for Great Britain in the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, Germany in the 4 x 400-metre relay where he won the silver medal with his teammates Martin Reynolds, Alan Pascoe and David Hemery. From 1973 to 1977 Hemery, a contemporary and 1968 Olympic hurdles champion, coached Jenkins.

Jenkins was educated at Edinburgh Academy, where he excelled at sport. From 1970 to 1973 he attended the University of Edinburgh (1970–1973) where, as a British Petroleum industrial apprentice. he received a BSc in chemical engineering. He then went on to study at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, where he received a postgraduate diploma in business management and marketing (1974).

From 1970–1973 and again in 1980 Jenkins was coached by the then Scottish National Coach, John Anderson. He started off as Scottish 100/200/400 champion, followed by his first of 6 AAA's 400 metre titles. Also in 1971, still aged only nineteen, Jenkins won the 400 metres at the 1971 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, the youngest British male athlete yet to win a European gold medal.

During the late 1970s Jenkins began his commercial career as the sales director at Reebok International in Bolton Lancashire, England. There he was involved in product development and testing. In addition, in the late 1970s he met with and visited Paul Fireman, head of a US sporting goods distributor, in Boston introducing him to Reebok and helping establish the then embryonic brand in the United States.

Jenkins' first coach was Jake Young, then head of physical education at the Edinburgh Academy. In his youth, Jenkins was the European record holder at 400-metres for under 17 and under 19 years old. In 1969 he represented Great Britain's senior open team in Hamburg, West Germany, winning the 400-metres aged 17 years four months. Jenkins' international athletic career spanned three decades, 1969 through 1982 starting on cinder tracks, to synthetic tracks from hand timing to electronic timing.

David Andrew Jenkins (born 25 May 1952) is a Scottish former track and field sprinter, drug trafficker, convicted felon and informant who competed mainly in the 200 metres and 400 metres and was part of the UK relay team which won a silver medal at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. He later confessed to using performance enhancing anabolic steroids.