Marijuana Business Magazine September 2018

Ben Kovler , who founded GTI in 2014 and serves as the chair of the board of directors, took over as CEO in late August. GTI has cultivation and retail operations in Illinois, where it started, plus Nevada, Massachusetts, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio. MedMen Adds Flower Power with New Branding Hire MedMen, a multistate and inter- national cannabis company based in California, hired 25-year marketing veteran David Dancer . Before joining MedMen, Dancer was head of mar- keting for Teleflora, North America’s largest floral service provider. He also served as a retail brand consultant for Charles Schwab, a marketing vice president at Visa and a senior marketing manager at American Express. In addition, MedMen hired a chief digital officer, Mike Lane , who previously was vice president of product at software innovator Grindr, a software app for the gay com- munity. In addition, he held design and development posi- tions of digital customer experiences at major brands such as Live Nation, Ticketmaster, Fox Broadcasting and Adobe. 4Front Hires Two Brand Pros A multistate cannabis firm head- quartered in Phoenix, 4Front Hold- ings, enlisted Richard Degnan and Karin Myint as chief marketing officer and chief creative officer, respectively. Degnan and Myint run their own brand-development shop, Metalmark Partners, which has offices in New York and San Francisco. Before joining 4Front, Degnan and Myint worked with several major consumer and retail brands, including Williams-Sonoma, The Body Shop, Vosges Haut-Chocolat and Bed Bath & Beyond. MJ Beer Maker Taps Coke, MillerCoors Marketing Vet Ceria Beverages, a THC-infused craft beer producer in Arvada, Colorado, appointed Douglas Christoph as chief marketing officer. Christoph previously was vice president of global marketing and customer business development for Coca-Cola, and before that he held various manage- ment positions during a 10-year career at MillerCoors. Christoph, who will maintain his current managing partner position at beverage industry advisers Inter- continental Beverage Capital, will be responsible for driving the marketing strategy for Ceria Beverages’ new cannabis-infused, nonalcoholic craft beer, which will roll out first in Colorado, then expand to other states where recreational marijuana has been legalized. Extraction Firm Hires Sales and Procurement Vets Apeks Supercritical, a CO 2 extrac- tion manufacturing company in Ohio, made two new hires. Dave LaRussa joins as the director of sales and brings 20 years of sales experience from companies such as Formica Group, Stanley and Mac Tools. LaRussa, an army veteran, has led sales teams at the national and global levels. Tracey Carpenter joins the com- pany as a procurement specialist, replacing Dave Fisher, who recently retired. Carpenter brings more than 20 years of corporate experience from companies such as The J.M. Smucker Co. and L Brands, whose flagship brands include Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. Beverage Veteran Joins Canadian Wellness Brand True Leaf Medicine, a Canadian wellness brand for people and their pets, appointed Sylvain Toutant to its board as an independent mem- ber. Toutant most recently served as chief executive officer of DavidsTea, a Canadian specialty tea boutique where, among other things, he led the company’s suc- cessful initial public offering on the Nasdaq. He also served as president of Keurig Canada and was COO of the Canadian unit of TC Global, a Seattle-based coffee and snack retailer. He also served as president of Réno- Dépôt, a chain of Canadian home supply stores, and was president and CEO of the Société des alcools du Québec, the province’s government-owned liquor retailer. Aleafia Gets New CEO Toronto-based Aleafia Health, which operates the Alea- fia Medical Cannabis Care Network, appointed Geoffrey Benic as CEO. From October 2004 until June 2018, Benic Karin Myint Sylvain Toutant Tracey Carpenter Dave LaRussa Ben Kovler David Dancer 114 • Marijuana Business Magazine • September 2018