Danny Keith is the CEO of Cannabis Club TV. Danny has built and sold numerous businesses and has also raised over $20M in nonprofit and corporate fundraising. He’s worked in social media, internet development and professional sports team marketing with the Golden State Warriors minor league affiliate Santa Cruz Warriors before founding Cannabis Club TV.
Thinking Outside the Bud is a business podcast devoted to driving innovation in the cannabis space. During each episode, we speak with founders, investors, thought leaders, researchers, advocates, and policy makers who are finding new and exciting ways for cannabis to positively impact business, society, and culture. Have each episode delivered to your inbox by subscribing here: http://www.thinkingoutsidethebud.com/subscribe
Jessica Velazquez is Managing Partner and CEO of Indiva Advisors. She brings more than 15 years of experience and is Indiva's main authority on 280E and general tax matters for individuals, partnerships, and corporations. Jessica holds a Master of Science in Taxation from DePaul University and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Southern Illinois University. She is a licensed CPA in Illinois and Nevada and is actively involved in several professional organizations including the AICPA and NA...
Dr. Michele Ross is a leading psychedelic researcher and educator as well as fibromyalgia patient. She founded the first 501c3 nonprofit on cannabis for women’s health in 2013, and is now CEO of Infused Health, an online platform for cannabis health coaching. Dr. Ross is the author of “Vitamin Weed: A 4-Step Plan to Prevent and Reverse Endocannabinoid Deficiency” and has a Doctorate in Neuroscience. Dr. Ross’s most recent project is an initiative attempting to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms ...
John Nemanic is a serial entrepreneur and investor, leveraging his extensive experience in starting, growing, managing and exiting firms. As co-founder, Chairman and CEO, he exited three very successful Internet start ups, Internet Direct, Tucows and Hostopia. In 2006, Hostopia raised 29.2 million (TSX:H), sold to Deluxe Communications for $124 million USD. John’s current interest are medical cannabis, hemp and CBD start ups, with a focus on Colombia. John lives in Panama and Colombia, manages P...
Gary leads Cova’s charge into the legal cannabis space by guiding the vision, strategic development, ‘go to market’ plans and culture. Before joining Cova, Gary was a principal in over a dozen tech start-ups in the mobile communications industry ranging from small VC funded companies to Fortune 100 firms, including Onavo, which was later acquired by Facebook. In those companies he led sales, marketing, business analytics and market expansions. He has also held a multitude of leadership roles wit...
In addition to his role as Founder and CEO at MAZAKALI, Sumit is a consultant to The Arcview Group and the Managing Partner of Emerald Ventures. A frequent speaker at investment seminars, Sumit acts as a mentor to Arcview and Canopy companies and serves on the Canopy Investment committee as well as the NCIA Finance & Insurance committee. Sumit and MAZAKALI support NCIA, the Marijuana Policy Project and Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Sumit’s past experience includes: Financial Advisor, J....
Jeff Renwick, serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Canntab Therapeutics Limited, a cannabis oral dosage formulation company, researches and develops advanced pharmaceutical grade formulations of cannabinoids in Canada. With extensive experience in drug formulation and business development, Jeff also served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Orbus Pharma Inc. He is a pharmaceutical executive with over 15 years of international industry experience covering manufacturi...
Eric Meth is a media sales professional & leader specializing in interactive, programmatic, mobile, and ad tech with 25 years of CPG & retail experience in both start-up environments and some of the most recognizable media and digital companies in the world.As Founder & CEO of Good Harvest Co., Eric is now applying his expertise to help innovate the way cannabis brands reach their desired consumers, and the way non-endemic brands reach cannabis consumers—moving audiences from shoppin...
Gia Morón is Executive Vice President for Women Grow. With 25 years of experience in public relations, she oversees the company’s internal and external communications, manages business relationships and strategic development of the company. Gia works with team on education programming and day-to-day operations working closely with the CEO and Chairwoman of the company. She began working with Women Grow headquarters in January 2017 as Director of Communications, after transitioning from the Women...
Victor obtained his B.S. in Biology at Siena College and Masters in Medical Bioethics at New York University. His focus through course work in his Master’s program was the examination of how to obtain true informed consent from patients in various circumstances: an approach he implemented on a daily basis working hand in hand with patients to help educate them not only about informed consent but their doctor’s directives as well. He completed his Medical Bioethics program with his Master’s thesi...
A former VP at Citigroup, Cassandra considers herself a fugitive of Corporate America. She saw a nascent industry that lacked reliable, unbiased news coverage, was underserved with regard to connections between the business individuals, and needed a repository for industry-wide business data. Cassandra heads up the cannabis industry leading daily news website Marijuana Business Daily and its family of content resources for the B2B cannabis marketplace, including the internationally recognized fa...
Tom Zuber is the Managing Partner of Zuber Lawler & Del Duca LLP, which handles IP, acquisitions, IPO’s and litigation. He has personally advised some of the most iconic companies in the world on their patent and trademark portfolios. He is at the cutting edge of cannabis patent and trademark law. Tom holds a law degree from Columbia Law School, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Government School, and a biomedical engineering degree from Rutgers University, where he graduated w...
Jessie Gill, RN is a cannabis nurse with a background in holistic health and hospice. After suffering a spinal injury, she reluctantly became a medical marijuana patient then quickly transitioned into an advocate. Her site, MarijuanaMommy.com educates about cannabis while challenging the stigma against marijuana use. She’s been featured on Viceland and her work has appeared on VICE, GoodHousekeeping, Cosmopolitan, MSN, and more.
Henry Finkelstein, CEO & Founder of Cannabis Big Data, empowers colleagues and clients by spinning data into gold with intuitive, actionable insights. After working in e-commerce, consulting, healthcare and government contracting, Henry saw the opportunity to create a modern-day data toolkit for licensed cannabis businesses that connects all the data dots with simple, intuitive, one-click reports & dashboards. Henry’s person-centric approach to the power of data is summed up as “Let’s co...
As the CEO of The Hybrid Creative, Zack is deeply focused on business development and expansion of the award-winning agency into the premier international platform for launching successful cannabis brands. Zack brings 20+ years of experience in brand development, design, marketing and event production. Having been raised by cannabis farmers in the Emerald Triangle, he is truly “second generation.” Zack’s passion for building the industry’s most successful brands is evident in The Hybrid Creative...
Jordan Wellington, Esq., Chief Compliance Officer at Simplifya, served as the sole legislative staffer assigned to shepherd the legislation implementing Amendment 64 and the legalization of cannabis through the Colorado General Assembly. Building upon his work with the firm, Jordan created the vision and co-founded Simplifya, a software company that provides compliance solution to cannabis businesses and consultants. As Simplifya's Cheif Compliance Officer, Jordan continues to help develop new f...
Vinay Tolia is the incoming CEO, pending regulatory approval, of The Flowr Corporation, a Health Canada Licensed Producer that cultivates ultra-premium nin-irradiated cannabis. An early investor in Flwor and former advisor to the company, Mr. Tolia is the managing member of Bengal Capital Trading LLC, a derivatives trading firm with a focus on listed equity options, and previously held roles with investment banking firms Peter J. Solomon Company and hedge fund Midtown Capital. Mr. Tolia attended...
Jonathan is a shareholder in a boutique 18-attorney law firm that exclusively practices intellectual property law. Jon focuses on trademark, copyright and trade secret litigation and transactional work. He works with clients to register their intellectual property rights domestically and internationally, and license these rights when fruitful for his clients. He enforces and defends copyright, trademark and trade dress infringement and other claims, either via online enforcement, cease and desis...
Jane West, Colorado-based CEO of the eponymous cannabis lifestyle brand Jane West, has emerged as a central figure in mainstream cannabis culture. When West lost her job as a corporate event planner in 2014 after her employer spotted her with a vape pen on CNBC, the working mother dove headfirst into the cannabis industry. She launched Edible Events, Colorado’s premiere cannabis event production company, one whose breakthrough “On a High Note” collaboration with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra c...
Amanda Reiman is the Vice President of Community Relations for Flow Kana, a branded cannabis distribution company that works with small farmers in the Emerald Triangle. She is also the Secretary of the International Cannabis Farmer's Association, a non profit that advocates for research and policies that favor sun grown cannabis cultivation through traditional farming methods and a Board member for the California Cannabis Tourism Association, the Mendocino Cannabis Industry Association and The I...
Dean Harris has an extensive background building brands and businesses. He has served as the Head of Marketing/Chief Marketing Offices for HotJobs, Vonage, Katak, kgb and BlueCava, Three of these brands went public and two were acquired. Before his CMO work, he co-founded and ran a full-service ad agency in New York City and Connecticut with accounts that included: Coca-Cola, J&J, Citi and Sotheby's. Dean was educated at Carleton College, the Columbia School of International Affairs and Colu...
Nancy Gruskin Warner, is the CEO and founder of Assurpack. Nancy has a degree in package engineering and over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, specifically in contract packaging, including expertise with materials, design, function, regulatory compliance and manufacturing. In 2012, Nancy co-founded Mina Pack, a contract packaging company providing specialty unit dose contract packaging services to pharmaceutical and HBA companies. Nancy was involved with Mina Pack until Nov...
Dr. Jonathan Vaught is CEO and Founder of Front Range Biosciences™. Previously, he was Director of Assay Development at Velocity Sciences, an IP development company creating next generation assay technologies for diagnostic applications. He also served as a Senior Product Development Scientist at Beacon Biotechnology, where he led development of a foodborne pathogen detection platform. Prior to Beacon, Dr. Vaught spent 5 years as a scientist at Somalogic where he helped build and optimize the SO...
Jed is the founder and director of Elevated Talks: Luxury Meets Cannabis Conference, a platform for luxury-minded and design-forward visionaries in the modern Cannabis space. He is also CEO and head of content strategy for his company 818 Agency, an award-winning event content marketing agency based in NYC — as well as a leading retail and market trends journalist and strategist quoted in WWD, Forbes, The New York Times, Fast Company, and Shopify’s, “2018 Retail Predictions and Marketing Trends....
Thinking Outside the Bud is a business podcast devoted to driving innovation in the cannabis space. During each episode, we speak with founders, investors, thought leaders, researchers, advocates, and policy makers who are finding new and exciting ways for cannabis to positively impact business, society, and culture. Have each episode delivered to your inbox by subscribing here: http://www.thinkingoutsidethebud.com/subscribe
Mark is President of VantagePoint Benefit Administrators, a key provider of employee benefit services to a variety of entities throughout the country. Prior to starting his own company, Mark spent ten years working in various capacities in the insurance field at Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Group Health Incorporated, and Precise Benefits Administrators. Mark’s primary role with these companies involved the design and market introduction of alternative funding programs to the fully insured ...
David Champion is Co-founder and CPO at Baker - the leading CRM for the cannabis industry, helping dispensaries generate more revenue and build relationships with their customers in one easy-to-use platform. Brought up in Papua New Guinea, Portugal and Scotland, Champion most recently lived in Kenya, where he founded an educational non-profit in response to policies that unfairly exclude children from primary schooling. He graduated with 1st Class Honors in Architecture at Cambridge University, ...
Andy is the founder and president of Apeks Supercritical, a leading CO2 extraction system manufacturer, established in 2001 in Johnstown, OH. He is an engineer and skilled fabricator with experience in engineering and operations management. Andy and his team continually work to improve the processes and capabilities of Apeks Supercritical systems to increase processing efficiency for faster extractions requiring less energy consumption. Andy is the inventor of five patents, including the Valvele...
Throughout his career JP has been creating understanding and connections between people and brands, buyers and sellers, companies and employees. He began his career at MCI, marketing some of the world’s very first Internet services, and seeing first-hand how a powerful brand – and a committed culture – could disrupt a 100-year old monopoly and change the world. Over the next twenty years, JP held senior tech industry marketing positions and founded a series of marketing and brand agencies – cont...
