Marijuana Business Magazine January 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | January 2019 112 T he leaders of Cannabiniers, the San Diego-based beverage and brand management company behind Two Roots Brewing Co., were confident they had compelling products in the form of THC- and CBD-infused beers and other beverages. They also realized the company would need the counsel of an executive with big- beverage experience if it were to pull off its business plan, which includes an IPO in 2019. Enter Michael Lorelli , who in 10 years with food and beverage giant PepsiCo served as president of Pizza Hut International, president of Pepsi’s Eastern U.S. bottling operations and chief marketing officer for Pepsi North America. Lorelli has chaired committees of several public companies and currently serves on the boards of several businesses. He’s also been watching the cannabis industry with a “more- than-casual interest,” he said, adding, “As a marketing person, you can’t ignore this space.” So, when a mutual friend introduced Lorelli to Cannabiniers executives, both sides were immediately intrigued. “From my side, a lot of it is due diligence. Does the company have its head screwed on? Do they believe in good governance? What are the existing skills on the board? And where are there gaps (that need filling)?” Lorelli said. From the Cannabiniers side, because the company is plan- ning a 2019 initial public offering on the Canadian Securities Exchange, its executives wanted someone who had experience with a large public company. “I pointed out to them that they need someone to chair the audit and compensation committees, and I have experience doing both. I also have experience with two IPOs. So, I filled a lot of the gaps they had in their existing board,” Lorelli said. “That was the nature of the conversations and, perhaps, why it took so long,” he continued. “But the third piece – which is important, and you can’t rush it – is chemistry. You wanted to make sure we were going to be making music.” Pepsi, Marijuana Beer and Chemistry Michael Lorelli A look at some recent hiring moves in the marijuana industry Industry Players | New Hires & Promotions   Acreage Board Gets Telecom Heavyweight and Former IBM CFO Multistate cannabis giant Acre- age Holdings of New York added two heavyweights to its board of directors: Larissa Herda served as CEO of TWTelecom (formerly Time Warner Telecom) for 16 years before retiring in 2014, after the company was sold to Level 3 Communications for $7.3 billion. During her tenure, she oversaw revenue growth from $26 million to $1.6 billion. She was appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama to the National Security Tele­ communications Advisory Commit- tee and served as chair of a Federal Communications Commission panel focused on security, reliability and other areas. Douglas Maine is a former senior executive and chief financial officer for IBM. Before that, Maine served in the same role at MCI Communica- tions (now part of Verizon) as part of his 20-year tenure with the company. He is currently a director of public company Albemarle and has served as a director of public companies Orbital-ATK, BroadSoft and Rock- wood Holdings. LiveWell Canada Expands Grow and Executive Team LiveWell Canada, a hemp and can- nabis company headquartered in Quebec, has hired a cultivation and compliance expert. Gary Sidhu assumes the title of master grower with more than 20 years of greenhouse experience. Sidhu was most recently director of production at a large licensed pro- ducer in Canada. By Omar Sacirbey Michael Lorelli Courtesy Photo Larissa Herda Courtesy Photo