Adrian Bota — co-founder and CEO of ORIGIN Milk — on creating the superlative, regenerative A2 heritage milk company!
Adrian’s roots in farming go back to his father working on a farm in Romania. Adrian’s parents and four siblings escaped from Romania right before the fall of Communism, immigrating to the U.S. and arriving in Cleveland in 1991. While Adrian’s father imagined his children would seek careers in medicine or law, Adrian ultimately drew on his background in business and health to enter the farming industry. Prior to launching Origin, Adrian began his career helping to define Pfizer Pharmaceuticals’ approach to the changing healthcare marketplace in the U.S. He later worked at Cleveland Clinic Innovations Group to manage new ventures in healthcare technology, genetics, and health and wellness.
Led by his passion for nutrition and innovation, coupled with searching for the best options in nutrition for his new child, Adrian embarked on the journey of utilizing his background in the pharma & biotech sector to rethink human nutrition from the ground up. In 2015, Adrian embarked on that journey to wholesome, nature-led nutrition and established Origin, a trailblazing regenerative A2 Guernsey dairy brand right here in Cleveland Ohio. He began partnering first with small farmers in Ohio and has since grown the operation, partnering with small, family-owned farms in Pennsylvania and Colorado. Their deep expertise in product development and knowledge of emerging consumer demands has led Origin to expand its portfolio into multiple verticals — now offering products spanning multiple milk varieties, chocolate, ghee, butter, and more
As you’ll hear in our conversation today, Adrian is one of the sharpest thinkers and shrewdest builders I’ve come across — one of my favorite discussions so far and an absolute pleasure to listen to and learn from — At the risk of being put out to pasture for some of the worst milk puns I’ll ever utter on this podcast, Adrian is a genuine mooover and shaker in the dairy world where he is committed to leading the shift away from big dairy, which is reliant on legacy cows and factory farming, to a regenerative, organic and always local model of clean dairy.
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Connect with Adrian Bota on LinkedIn
Follow ORIGIN Milk on Instagram
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Past guests include Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Steve Potash (OverDrive), Ed Largest (Westfield), Ray Leach (JumpStart), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Lindsay Watson (Augment Therapy), and many more.
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