Travis Baumgardner

Travis Baumgardner is the co-founder and Chief Impact Officer of SAMBAZON, the pioneering brand that introduced certified organic and Fair Trade açaí to the global marketplace. In 1995, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied Environmental Geography at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Immersed in Rio’s vibrant culture, he discovered açaí bowls and quickly recognized açaí as a powerful non-timber forest product with the potential to create a globally traceable, triple-bottom-line supply chain from the Amazon to the world.

Travis has played a pivotal role in building SAMBAZON’s vertically integrated and sustainable sourcing model, organizing cooperatives, advancing certifications, and developing eco-conscious production systems that promote fair-wage harvesting, biodiversity conservation, and thriving community livelihoods in Brazil.

As a long-time executive leader, he has helped expand the brand into thousands of retail locations across more than 50 countries, championing mission-driven growth that successfully balances environmental stewardship, social impact, and commercial performance.

SAMBAZON—short for Sustainable Açaí Management of the Brazilian Amazon—has spent the past 26 years growing into a global leader in açaí. Our fully integrated supply chain is built on a simple idea: that a triple bottom line—people, planet, and profit—can scale.

In 2025 alone, we processed more than 70 million pounds of certified organic and Fair Trade açaí, sourced from over 350 ribeirinho communities across 100,000 acres of Amazonian agroforestry. Beginning in 2026, our entire açaí harvest will also be Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC).

An achievement like this doesn’t happen overnight—especially across language and cultural differences and thousands of miles of Amazon rainforest. It took 26 years of showing up, building trust, and choosing to work directly with ribeirinho communities instead of taking the easier path of buying through middlemen. Those relationships are the foundation of our supply chain—and the reason we can substantiate every claim we make.

We helped build the açaí category from the ground up, and we did it the hard way. Building an authentic brand around a product from such a special place requires an equally authentic, long-term relationship with the people and communities who make it possible. That commitment is why we can stand here today as the global leader in açaí—and the only açaí brand in the world with a 100% Regenerative Organic Certified harvest. Not a portion of our supply. Every pound.

Our ROC certification also represents something distinct. Many ROC-certified operations are farms working to restore previously damaged land. SAMBAZON manages 117,000 acres of native Amazon floodplain, helping protect an intact ecosystem. For comparison, Florida Crystals manages 10,000 ROC-certified acres and Niman Ranch 105,000—both farming operations.

In 2026, we expect to harvest more than 80 million pounds of wild-collected açaí fruit—a scale no other major brand has achieved under ROC.