Sustained vision

A wide-ranging and successful business career has taken Chris Cogan everywhere from water pollution control to software design to venture capital.

He started his first company at 18. He later ran a business that provided design, purchasing and construction management for hotels, a company that grew to $100 million in sales in five years. One of his most recent stops was Morgan Stanley, where he oversaw day-to-day operations of a Sarasota-based investment and wealth management office with more than $600 million in assets under management.
But Cogan thinks his latest business venture, a foray into the nascent sustainable food industry, could be one of his biggest hits ever. His entry is Healthy Earth, a company run out of the Sarasota-based venture capital firm he helps oversee, Southeast Venture Holdings, or Seven Holdings. “We see the dynamics changing in the food industry,” says Cogan. “We think it's equivalent to a sustainable food revolution.”

Seven Holdings and Healthy Earth officials took their first shot in the revolution late last year, when they bought a Siberian sturgeon and caviar operation from Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. The operation, on 8 acres on a rural part of Fruitville Road east of Interstate 75, is one of the largest facilities in the country that harvests and packages caviar eggs in-house. Mote's caviar sells for about $55 an ounce, and is sold in Costco and Whole Foods, among other locations.