Taking the expertise garnered during a long, highly successful career as an entrepreneur, Elliott Balbert has turned his business acumen and passion to philanthropy. Following the merger of the two non-profits, Art of the Brain and the IGN Foundation, into Heart of the Brain in 2017, Balbert assumed the leadership role of HOTB’s Executive Director in January 2018.
The cause dear to him, based on the journey of a friend whose daughter, Isabel, was diagnosed with brain cancer, he joined her father – IGN Co-founder and a member of HOTB Board of Trustees – in the family’s work advocating for a cure.
As President and CEO of Balbert & Associates, launched in 2006, Balbert provides strategic and tactical services to consumer, packaged goods companies, particularly in the natural products industry, along with a variety of mentoring and philanthropic activities.
In 1980, Balbert founded Natrol, Inc., a Chatsworth, Calif.-based vitamin and supplement manufacturer, which he grew from a “one-man operation” to a leading company in the natural products/health food marketplace, with more than 300 employees and sales in 40 countries. As President and CEO, he spearheaded day-to-day operations until the company’s sale in 2008 to Plethico Pharma, a global pharmaceutical manufacturing company from India, which was looking to enter the natural health marketplace.
Balbert has received multiple awards for his vision and leadership role in the industry, including founding the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance (DSEA) in 2001 – which helped establish the now well-recognized role of vitamins and supplements in maximizing personal health – and speaking on behalf of the industry during Congressional hearings.
He has been associated with numerous non-profit organizations, serving on their boards and or acting in management positions, including a long-time relationship in leadership roles for the non-profit Vitamin Angels, which distributes lifesaving vitamins to mothers and children at risk of malnutrition, serving 61 million people in 74 countries.
Balbert received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Accounting and Marketing at California State College, Los Angeles; and studied Science at University of Manitoba, Canada.
