Michael D. Ham is the CEO of Wild Orchard, a single-origin tea company built on regenerative organic agriculture. Under his leadership, Wild Orchard on Jeju Island, South Korea became the world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified® tea gardens – a designation that reflects not just certification, but decades of farmer-led work that began long before the credential existed.
Wild Orchard’s founding farmers began planting tea trees from seed in 1999, restoring soil and ecosystem health in volcanic terrain without irrigation or synthetic inputs. Michael’s role is to honor that legacy by bringing it forward through market access, long-term partnerships, and the kind of transparency that connects what happens in the ground to what ends up in the cup. That work has been recognized through 29 international tea awards and the 2025 CPG Conscious Business Award.
Michael holds a background in kinesiology and nutrition, and carries dual credentials as a WELL Accredited Professional and WELL Faculty – reflecting a deep fluency in the relationship between environment and human health. That lens shapes how he thinks about tea: not only as a beverage, but as a system connecting soil health, human health, and ecological resilience.
Through Wild Orchard, he works with chefs, cafes, hotels, retailers, and institutions across North America and Europe, advocating for origin integrity, conscious business practices, and a supply chain where the land is always the first stakeholder.
