Eric D. Bastian was born in central Utah and reared on a dairy farm. He obtained his education at Utah State University with a BS degree in Dairy Science, and MS and Ph. D. (1989) degrees in Nutrition and Food Sciences. He spent one year (1989-1990) as a research fellow with the Danish Government Research Institute for the Dairy Industry in Hillerod, Denmark.

In 1992, Eric accepted a faculty position at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition and for six years he led a research team focused on milk protein and enzyme chemistry, process cheese functionality, and milk protein fractionation. In 1998, he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. In the same year, he accepted a position with Avonmore West (now Glanbia) as Director of Research & Development (R&D) and relocated to Twin Falls, Idaho.

Eric was promoted to Vice President of R & D for Glanbia Nutritionals in 2006 and he began leading the cheese R&D for Glanbia Foods in 2013 (both divisions were part of Glanbia PLC). In 2015, Eric was promoted to Senior Vice President of Innovation. During his time at Glanbia Nutritionals, he developed a research team, starting with 5 people and building to a team of 80.

In July of 2016, Eric joined Dairy West as Vice President of Innovation Partnerships and, in 2019, he also became the Director of the Western Dairy Center. Eric has been instrumental in developing the BUILD Dairy Program, a research/workforce development for the dairy industry.