On an afternoon in November, 2007, a corporate jet waited in a hangar at Salt Lake International Airport. It's four passengers, scientists and executives from a global pharmaceutical company were locked in negotiations with three men in a nearby building. They started getting on the phone about noon back east and they kept doing that at about two o'clock. They walked in the room and said, ok, we're convinced you've got something here and it's significant enough that we will write you a check big enough that you won't want to talk to anybody else.
A lot of people have fathers that teach them sports. My father happened to be a great strategist and from a very young age, I recall having discussions with him about what he was doing at the time. He was running fairly large companies. And I can remember driving in the car with him and him talking to me about strategy about what is strategy and how to think differently about a company. Verdis Norton was well qualified to teach his son at the time. He was sales Planning manager of the billion dollar beverage division of General Foods Corporation in New York with responsibility for iconic products like Kool, aid, country time and others. In 1985 he was recruited by Dart and Kraft and eventually became the head of Hobart Corporation US near Cincinnati Ohio. Five years later, he rejoined Kraft General Foods in Chicago as vice president of the Channel group, managing a billion dollar pilot business unit that led to the eventual integration of General Foods, Oscar Mayer and Kraft Foods. Based on his track record, Verdis was asked to help reengineer the company to increase efficiency in relation to an industry wide initiative called efficient Consumer Response. In the subsequent three years, Kraft's ECR or efficiency rating moved from 10th to first place. I've known Verdis for over 25 years and it was apparent to me immediately that here was a very special man, a man that had wonderful ethics, great business strategies, enthusiasm. There was no question that this man was gonna be a huge success and he is a success. Verdis retired from Kraft at age 57 and moved to Park City Utah. We thought he would take retirement seriously. He did not, shortly after doing some service for our church, he was asked to run a biotech company. He had a lab in Southern California. Five phd S reporting to him, a series of masters or graduate students as well, all doing work for him there. And he ran that for four years and we thought he was done but Verdis Norton was not done through his son, Tyler. Verdis was introduced to another biotech company and invited to become a member of their board. I recall coming to the house one afternoon only to find books strewn about his desk, chemistry and biology, books. And I said, now, what in the world are you doing now? And he proceeded to tell me that he had been invited to sit on the board of this company that had an incredible technology that, and I do recall him saying, but they don't know exactly what they have. And that's an invitation to my dad. He's gonna figure it out. He's a puzzler. I was intrigued until they told me it was made from salt water. And I told them this doesn't sound right. And you're gonna have to convince me it's real. They said, well, we can do that and they said, we have a lot of research and we'll give you some of the best research you can look at it. And after running a lab and having my association with these people for four years, I knew what to look for. And I went through the science and it was good defensible science. Then they gave me a list of people to call and I was calling Harvard, UCL, a University of Washington University of Indiana, major labs across the United States. And everyone I talked to raved about the product, the way the company was intending for it to be used. And also they raved about the fact that you could drink this product and get a benefit from it. At the time, the product could only be produced in limited quantities through small devices, highly unstable. It had to be used within minutes of production. But seeing the strength of the product, Verdis agreed to join the board of directors as soon as I did that, they said, we're gonna give you one of these devices to put in your house. We'd like you to become familiar with it. I started drinking a product that was made in this device.
I felt better than I had for years. And now keep in mind, I was in my sixties at that time and I thought, holy cow, what is this? So I went to the first board meeting and found out that they were flat out of money. They were a million dollars in debt. We said, let's see if we can help them find money. We tried for about 90 days, could not eventually the company folded and they actually merged it with another company, an energy company. And when that happened, that company started selling off assets. And so we started down the road together. And over the course of a year, we discovered what the product was and why it worked, we developed what's called the mechanism of action. They discovered the product was based on redox biochemistry. Redox signaling is a function central to all forms of life. Redox signaling molecules are created within every cell of the body and are vital to the immune system and to cellular repair and replace mechanisms. As one gets older, the body's ability to make these molecules decreases a function of aging. The product provided a replenishing source of the exact redox signaling molecules the body creates and in the same balance, enhancing cellular health. Knowing the product shelf life was essential. Verdis challenged a team of researchers
to find a way to stabilize the product. We didn't know if it could be done and we bought some equipment and kept makingproduct over and over and over again and we'd run it through the computer. And finally, after months, he finally came in and said, I think I've got the product stabilized and we started testing it and found out that he had in fact stabilized the product after stabilization had been achieved. Verdis met with a group of university scientists. We had told them that we had stabilized this mix of molecules and they said, no, it can't be done. And we said, no, we have done it and they said, no, it can't be done. And they were so adamant that they were slapping the table and we said, well, wait a minute, we'll come back tomorrow and show you the product. So we took the product back the next day, said this is stabilized, redox signaling molecules, both positive and negative molecules in the same bottle stabilized. And they said, how in the world did you do this? So, one of the big breakthroughs is the fact that we can stabilize molecules that are you're not supposed to be able to do that. The molecules in the ASEA are supposed to be fleeting. They should all return to salt and water in just a matter of minutes and they don't.
The product was stabilized. Verdis began studying distribution models, retail, direct sales, internet, and network marketing. So we decided to find 40 people and create kind of a focus group. And we started giving it to them. We did that for about two months. So we said, let's go out and find out where we are with these 40 people. So when we went out and contacted them, we found out that the 40 people had turned into 135 and the product had been shipped to 20 different countries without our knowing it. And we said well, we've got the answer. We wanted that people will, I think buy this product when they determine that there is a perceived health benefit, they'll buy it. ASEA LLC opened its doors for business in July 2009 with just a handful of independent associates today. There are tens of thousands and their ranks are growing exponentially. Every month. In 2012, the company announced its entry into Europe. The first of many international steps to come. One of my fondest memories is of a me to see a meeting that we held in Lexington, Kentucky. We had a huge group of people that came very impressive group and a lot of people coming up talking about what the ASEA had done for them personally. But at the end of the meeting, they invited me to come up and gave me a small treasure chest wasn't very big. But as you open up the treasure chest, it's filled with letters of gratitude and things.
You know, we started off looking at this as a business opportunity. And as we progressed, it became more of a sense of purpose, but it's much more than that. We're creating a culture here. We're creating a family.
