Adel Villalobos is founder and CEO of Lief Labs, a leading innovator in product ideation, formulation and manufacturing for the dietary supplement market.

Born with a knack for two things — science and baseball — Villalobos used baseball as motivation to attend California State University, Northridge, where he decided to focus less on his baseball mitt and more on his passion for science.

In 2001 he received his B.Sc. Degree in Biochemistry with extensive studies in Nutritional Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He began garnering experience in the relatively new but burgeoning nutraceutical industry, landing a part-time job as a customer service rep at Natrol, a leading vitamin and supplement manufacturer.

Eager to learn, Villalobos worked in various other departments at Natrol — from QC lab tech to marketing, product development and legal — before venturing out on his own in 2002 to launch his first dietary supplement company that he eventually sold. He then started Lief Labs in 2008, in a small building with eight employees.

Today, Lief Labs has grown into a 140,000-square-foot, NSF cGMP-certified, contract manufacturing facility with close to 200 employees in Valencia, Calif., producing nearly 7 million capsules/tablets and 7,000 pounds of dietary supplement powders each day.

In addition to serving as a board member of Heart of the Brain, Villalobos supports Vitamin Angels, a non-profit dedicated to creating a healthier world by providing lifesaving vitamins to mothers and children under the age of five at risk of malnutrition, reducing preventable illness, blindness, and death.