Marijuana Business Magazine - March 2018

Shanita Penny , founder and CEO of Budding Solutions and board member of the Minority Cannabis Business Association; Kris Krane , president of 4front Ventures; and Patrick Witcher , president of Buddy Boy Brands and chief compliance officer at MJardin Group. Leadership Changes at Minority Trade Group The Minority Cannabis Business Association has a new 2017-018 board that includes a big change at the top. Citing a desire to spend more time with his family, Jesse Horton , who helped found MCBA in 2015 and Saints, a Port- land, Oregon, marijuana business, resigned as the organization’s executive director and board chair in December. Shanita Penny is serving as interim director while the organiza- tion finds a full-time director. The members of the 2017-2018 board are: • Seth Adler (Denver) • Brandon Banks (Denver) • Linda Mercado Greene (Washington DC) • Albert Harrington (Los Angeles) • Judge Shelli D. Hayes (Las Vegas) • Kayvan Khalatbari (Denver) • Khurshid Khoja (Sacramento, California) • Dr. Rachel Knox (Portland, Oregon) • Chanda Macias (Washington DC) • Mary Jane Oatman (Kamiah, Idaho) • Jason Ortiz (Hartford, Connecticut) • Shanita Penny (Baltimore) • Lindsay Robinson (San Francisco) • Jessica Velazquez (San Francisco) • Brandon Wyatt (Baltimore) • Rachelle Yeung (Washington DC) Food and Alcohol Execs Join Grow Company Los Angeles-based Vertical, a vertically integrated medical cannabis company, hired Courtney Dorne and J. Smoke Wallin for its leadership team. Dorne is an entrepreneur and food industry veteran who joins Vertical as a partner and president of Vertical Brands. Wallin is a serial entrepreneur from the bever- age alcohol industry and joins as a partner and chief marketing officer and president of Vertical Distribution. Courtney Dorne J. Smoke Walllin Kris Krane Jesse Horton Patrick Witcher Shanita Penny Dorne founded California-based Fresh and Ready Foods and is the current chair of the Women’s Network. Wallin comes from Taliera, an Indiana company he founded in 2005 to create, acquire, manage and advise beverage brands. He also served as chairman and president of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America. Serial Entrepreneur Joins Cannabis Grow Board Intiva BioPharma, a Denver biopharmaceuti- cal company that devel- ops and commercial- izes cannabinoid-based medicine and delivery systems, appointed serial entrepreneur Lindy Snider to its board. Snider is a director at Colorado-based Intiva, the parent company of Intiva BioPharmais. Snider also founded Lindi Skin, a Pennsylvania skin care company catering to cancer patients. She has held executive and board positions at numerous cannabis-related companies, including Greenhouse Ventures, Kind Finan- cial and Manna Capital. Snider is chair of the Entrepreneurship and Social Impact Initiative at The Lambert Center for the Study of Medici- nal Cannabis and Hemp at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. CBD Company Lands Chief for Sports Division Green Roads, a Florida manufacturer of hemp- derived CBD products, has drafted Treyous Jarrells , an entrepreneur and former Colorado State University running back, to lead its recently started Green Roads Athletics subsidiary. Aurora Expands Leadership Team Aurora Cannabis, the Alberta, Canada, medical marijuana cultivator, appointed Savior Joseph as its new senior vice president for global marketing. Joseph will report to the chief global business development officer and will be responsible for marketing initiatives supporting all Aurora products around the world. Joseph was previously president of Colour, a North American digital creative marketing firm with Lindy Snider Treyous Jarrells 114 • Marijuana Business Magazine • March 2018