Building Origin Bakery: Tara Black on Inclusion, Leadership & Scaling With Compassion

In this episode of The People-Driven CEO Podcast, Shane sits down with Tara Black, Founder and CEO of Origin Bakery, to talk about entrepreneurship, leadership, gluten-free food and what it takes to build a business around a genuine human need.

Tara’s career in food and hospitality began when she was just 13 years old. After becoming both a chef and pastry chef and spending years across the food and beverage industry, she eventually recognized a problem that was about much more than food. People living with celiac disease, autoimmune conditions and gluten sensitivities were constantly having to question what was safe to eat and were often excluded from the social and celebratory experiences surrounding food. Tara saw an opportunity to change that. In 2009, she co-founded Origin Bakery as a completely gluten-free bakery built around safety, quality and belonging.

The conversation explores the realities of building and sustaining a food business, from tight margins and skilled labour to changing customer expectations and the lasting effects of the pandemic on hospitality. Tara and Shane also get into leadership, company culture and why strong leaders need to give people room to learn, fail and develop their own judgement rather than simply telling them what to do.

Now, Tara is taking Origin into its next chapter through franchising and expansion. As the company grows beyond its original locations, she is thinking deeply about how to scale systems, leadership and culture without losing the trust and human experience that made Origin successful in the first place.

At the centre of Tara’s philosophy is compassion, both for ourselves and for the experiences of the people around us.