Marijuana Business Magazine July 2018

inside and outside the cannabis industry, including serv- ing as general manager for a $40 million EDS operation encompassing hundreds of employees and clients. Wilson’s resume includes three years as director of engineering and startup operations with Privateer Hold- ings, the marijuana-focused private equity firm in Seattle. In that role, he managed the design, construction and operational launch of a $30 million grow facility owned by Tilray, a Privateer subsidiary based in British Columbia. MJ Investment Firm Poaches Goldman Exec Salveo Capital, a marijuana- focused venture capital firm in Chi- cago, appointed Thomas Mazarakis as a managing partner. Mazarakis most recently served as a manag- ing director at Goldman Sachs in London, where he was head of the Fundamental Strategies Group, a department of research analysts within the securities division’s multibillion-dollar equity and credit businesses. In his new role, Mazarakis will work alongside man- aging partners Michael Gruber and Jeffrey Howard in overseeing strategic direction and will be responsible for portfolio management. Kush Job Kush Bottles, the Santa Ana, California-based packag- ing company, added two new members to its leadership team: Rodrigo de Oliveira as vice president of opera- tions, and Jason Vegotsky as vice president of sales. Oliveira has held operations and supply chain-man- agement posts with companies including Nike Acces- sories, General Electric and Oakley. Vegotsky was the co-founder of Summit Innovations, a Denver distributor of hydrocarbons to the legal cannabis industry. Kush recently acquired Summit Innovations. Silver State Senator Joins Freedom Leaf Nevada Sen. Richard “Tick” Segerblom , a leader in the state’s recreational legalization movement, joined the board of directors of Las Vegas-based Freedom Leaf, a group of diversified and vertically inte- grated hemp business and cannabis media companies. Freedom Leaf also hired Rodrigo Chavez as managing director and Joe Reed as national sales director. Chavez previously managed business operations for Weedmaps in Europe. Reed has more than two decades of sales management and distribution experience. Seed-to-Sale Firm Plucks PayPal Vet PayQwick, a seed-to-sale elec- tronic-payments business based in Calabasas, California, installed Albert Acevedo as chief financial officer. Acevedo has worked at PayPal, Blackhawk Network and Hewlett-Packard. Green Gorilla Gets Ag Expert CBD manufacturer Green Gorilla appointed Av Singh to the post of chief science officer. Singh will be responsible for overseeing all cultivation and agricultural matters as well as providing guidance on new product development. Previ- ously, Singh was chief agronomist with the American Cannabis Co., a Denver cannabis consultancy and provider of ancillary services. MJ Strategy Firm Gets State Policy Pro Dacorum Strategies, a Denver government-relations firm specializ- ing in cannabis, hired Barbara Brohl as vice president of government and regulatory affairs. Brohl was the executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue and was heavily involved with the implementation of Colorado’s recreational cannabis market. Aphria Hires for Key Positions Leamington, Ontario-based Aphria hired several new professionals to help with commercial, legal and other efforts. • Jakob Ripshtein is the licensed cultivator’s first chief commercial officer, a role in which he will oversee Aphria’s commercial, sales and marketing teams. Ripshtein spent the past two years as chief financial officer of Diageo North America, a beer and spirits company he was with for 10 years. Albert Acevedo Av Singh Barbara Brohl Richard Segerblom Thomas Mazarakis 120 • Marijuana Business Magazine • July 2018