Plant Prophets introduces you to some of the most forward-thinking executives and companies in the cannabis industry Host Vern Davis speaks to those who are at the forefront of creating real companies and creating real career opportunities.

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Kevin Hart is the Founder &amp; CEO of Green Check Verified. Kevin brings four decades of enterprise software experience as part of his founding vision for Green Check. He has worked in the C-Suite for a variety of software companies with global clients and partners, and he has led two companies to successful exits with publicly traded companies, as well as another to an IPO.With decades of experience at the helm of venture-backed companies, Kevin has brought together an unmatched team to help him lead Green Check to its leading position in the cannabis financial services market.Established in 2017, Green Check Verified brought together leaders in banking, compliance, and technology to build a company that enables financial institutions to safely and successfully offer services to the legal cannabis industry by utilizing best-in-class technology solutions and advisory services.

Green Check Verified With CEO Kevin Hart

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Their journey began in 2013 when CEO Roger Volodarsky decided he wanted more than what the industry standard could provide. In response, with the mission of providing the best platform for extract consumption, he brought together the disciplines of design, technology, and engineering to create Puffco.Before they arrived, most vaporizers utilized fibrous wicks, glues to hold the bowl or coil in place, and plastics in the airpath. They did away with the toxins and developed a safer, simpler, and far more flavorful industry standard. They also added the first temperature controls to a vaporizer pen, allowing you to further dial in your experience.Puffco is the cleanest, simplest, and most flavorful consumption experience available. No glues, fibers, or chemicals. The most awarded vaporizers and products. Industry-leading innovation, done strictly in-house.

Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Puffco Chelsea Kossower

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A visionary leader with more than 30 years of experience in the packaging industry, Mr.Sanfilippo is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VIST™ Labs and VIST Franchise Systems. Previously, he was President of Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based Sonoco Elk Grove, Inc. from Aug. 2017 until Jan. 2020 after its acquisition of Clear Lam Packaging, Inc. At Clear Lam, he served as President and CEO starting in 1999.Sanfilippo is credited with developing more than 100 patents representing major advances in flexible and forming film packaging materials for fresh and processed foods, healthcare products, and other packaged goods. Under his leadership, Clear Lam became known as a front-runner in modified atmosphere packaging technologies, films, and structures that improve food safety and extend shelf life.

VIST™ Labs and VIST Franchise Systems With Jim Sanfilippo

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Patrick Rea is the Managing Director of Poseidon Garden Ventures. Poseidon was founded by siblings Emily &amp; Morgan Paxhia in 2013, making their first fund one of the longest-running dedicated cannabis investment funds. The Poseidon team has focused on a diversified strategy covering a range of company stages and industry subsectors across the capital spectrum. Now in the eighth year of conducting due diligence, deploying capital, and serving on multiple company boards of Directors, the team is considered a leader in the cannabis industry. This recognition, in conjunction with Poseidon being a first mover in the cannabis investment space, has led to a level of trust with industry insiders. Poseidon has forged a positive reputation in the cannabis industry by helping companies when others would not, resulting in proprietary deal flow.

Poseidon Garden Ventures With Managing Director Patrick Rea

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Khadijah Tribble is an activist and policy strategist on a mission to do good. Khadijah received her MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2018. Upon her graduation, she successfully launched the Marijuana Policy Trust, a social enterprise partnering with the government and the cannabis community to establish a regulatory framework that works for all stakeholders. Applying a social justice and equity lens, Khadijah utilizes over 15 years of consulting experience to assist government officials in regulating a new cannabis marketplace.No stranger to complex problems, Khadijah has lent her expertise and talents as a board advisor to numerous worthy organizations including her current role as a board member for New Profit’s Hero awardee, Changing Perceptions, an organization leading the charge in offering ex-offenders a way out of recidivism and path to entrepreneurship. Most recently she served as strategic chair for United Medical Center Hospital and founding board member of the Community Wellness Collective. As a Cheng Fellow, Khadijah worked with local and state government officials in Massachusetts providing policy briefings and recommendations for establishing the state’s regulatory framework for cannabis. Dividing her time between Washington, DC, Boston, and Oakland Khadijah continues to refine the cannabis equity in the regulation toolkit (CERT) which she developed during her Cheng Fellowship.

Khadija Triple Brings Leadership And ESG To Cannabis Conversation

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Established in 2017, Green Check Verified brought together leaders in banking, compliance, and technology to build a company that enables financial institutions to safely and successfully offer services to the legal cannabis industry by utilizing best-in-class technology solutions and advisory services.Brett Puffenbarger is the Vice President of Marketing for the Cannabis Division at Green Check Verified. Brett is a cannabis professional with experience across a broad range of the “green rush.” Brett is also the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Good Highdeas, a bespoke advisory and consulting company. Brett has marketing and sales experience across a wide variety of industries. He is also passionate about PR and holds his Master of Arts from Full Sail University.

Green Check Verified With Brett Puffenbarger

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<a href="http://www.PayRio.co" rel="nofollow">PayRio</a> is a female-founded payments company that offers specialized payment solutions in the cannabis, CBD, and high-risk health and wellness industries. Founder and self-described “highly driven, long-term payments geek” Aubrey Amatelli has a background in payment processing, honing her craft at corporate giants including JP Morgan. She is paving the way for female leaders in the cannabis &amp; fintech industries. She is also a single mother of 3 and a CEO simultaneously.80% of PayRio&#39;s business directly supports dispensary growth through card payments. According to Amatelli, It’s their mission to normalize payments in the cannabis industry, and &#34;we’re off to a great start&#34;. Amatelli believes that to positively impact gender equality in cannabis, it’s important to “spread the love and support for women-owned cannabis businesses.” Following women-owned businesses and vendors on social media platforms and purchasing products from their companies is a great way to show your support. But, she says, one of the most beneficial ways to impact gender equality in cannabis is to hire women and promote them from within.

PayRio With CEO Aubrey Amatelli

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Aaron Miles currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of Verano, and over the course of his more than 19 years of financial and capital markets experience, he has served in leadership roles across a variety of Fortune 500 companies and industries. ﻿His background and expertise spans capital markets, investor relations, corporate development, treasury and communication roles in large and diversified corporations that include Abbott Laboratories, CME Group, Navigant, Tribune Publishing Company, the New York Stock Exchange, and most recently, Cresco Labs.Among his many accomplishments, Miles has distinguished himself as a cannabis industry leader in the financial and investor relations space, having notably assisted in taking both Cresco Labs and Verano’s public on the Canadian Securities Exchange in 2018 and 2021, respectively. In his current role as Chief Investment Officer, Miles serves as a member of Verano’s executive leadership team and is active in leading the company’s capital markets and investor relations activities.

Verano With CIO Aaron Miles

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Alison Di Spaltro is a seasoned executive highly skilled in building businesses from the ground up with a people-first focus. She combines an aptitude for launching and scaling operations in technology and other fast-moving sectors with an entrepreneur’s drive and a passion for empowering consumers in their health and wellness.Alison’s engineering background informs her systems-based approaches to operational oversight and team-building. She takes a hands-on role as CEO of Escape Artists, setting the course for the company’s expansion strategy, its infrastructure growth, and aligning business development, client relationships, and product R&amp;D. She’s committed to setting a new standard for corporate culture in the cannabis industry.Alison graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in Environmental Engineering and worked in the Bay Area on federal remediation projects before transitioning into business operations roles in Silicon Valley. She has worked with multiple bay area startups to help them set up and scale their business operations. Alison is a mother of three who loves hiking and exploring with her family in Northern California.

Escape Artists With Alison Di Spaltro

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Artemis Holdings are venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, consultants, financiers, scientists, and board directors of public and private companies. They are a bridge to the future of the cannabis industry while being mindful of the past. Artemis brings best-in-class companies to you. They believe that a thriving cannabis industry benefits the health and wellness of humanity. They also invest in exceptional teams that have the vision and, with their support, ability to create truly great companies.

The Vision of Artemis Holdings with Sheri Orlowitz (Best OF Plant Prophets)

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Jessica Billingsley and Samantha Ford at The Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference. Our first guest is CEO of the first cannabis compliance technology company to be traded on Nasdaq making her the first CEO from this market to bring a company to a major U.S. exchange. She has recognized for Fortune’s “Most Promising Women Entrepreneur Award,” is also recognized as one of Inc.’s “Female Founders 100,” and was chosen for Entrepreneur Magazine’s inaugural 100 Powerful Women list. Jessica Billingsley has served as MJ Freeway’s Chief Executive Officer since April 2018. She co-founded MJ Freeway in 2010 and served as President from 2010 to April 2018. Prior to MJ Freeway, Jessica was CEO and founder of Zoco, a technology services firm with clients across the United States. Next, we talk to Samantha Ford of Protis Global. Samantha is all about the hustle. She is sharp, fun and quite exceptional at most things she puts her mind to. She’s been in executive search for over 20 years. She successfully built a search practice in the 90’s placing high-level equity professionals with top wall street firms nationwide and ultimately became one of the top search professionals in the brokerage industry. Needless to say, she knows her way around people, business and numbers. What more could we ask for? After spending a month in Nepal, she decided to leave the corporate world and go out on her own where she continued to focus on wall street.

Female Leadership in Cannabis with Jessica Billingsley and Samantha Ford (BEST OF Plant Prophets)

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Lisa is the President of Happi, the first THC-infused beverage to launch in the state of Michigan, which she co-founded and leads with her partner Joe Reynolds. Happi’s all-natural sparkling water beverages are made with simple ingredients, and organic fruit, they are vegan and have just 15-25 calories. Designed for the canna-curious woman, Happi combines Lisa’s passion for microdose products and her desire to help more women see cannabis as an alternative to pharmaceuticals and alcohol.Prior to Happi, Lisa was the Chief Marketing &amp; Innovation Officer at Grassroots Cannabis, a multi-state operator based in Illinois. At Grassroots, Lisa built the marketing function across Grassroots vertical operation in 12 states, developed the product innovation pipeline, and the retail vision, and launched 4 brands in under 2 years. Lisa’s role went beyond marketing as she architected the company’s data &amp; analytics platform and infrastructure, designed the packaging supply chain, and launched numerous new product innovations prior to Grassroots’ sale to Curaleaf in July 2020 for $830MM.

Happi With Lisa Hurwitz

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Kyle Sherman is the Founder and CEO of Flowhub, the leading business management &amp; point-of-sale platform for cannabis dispensaries. Founded in Denver, Flowhub simplifies compliance for more than 1,000 legal cannabis retailers across North America, processing more than $3B in sales annually.Flowhub is a team of people united by its mission to make cannabis accessible to everyone through powerful compliance and retail management software. They&#39;re focused on making it as fluid as possible to run, manage and grow any modern dispensary operation.

Flowhub With Kyle Sherman

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John Mueller is the CEO of Greenlight. He is a partner at Mid America Capital investment bank and previously served as CEO of Acres Cannabis and Acres Cultivation. John brings extensive experience with state regulations and compliance in all areas of cannabis cultivation and dispensing. He has two successful decades of working with federal and state regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as the Food and Drug Administration. John has served in all levels of executive management primarily in the cannabis, food, manufacturing, and construction industries.

Greenlight With CEO John Mueller

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Today we are joined by Paul Weaver, The Head of Cannabis at The Boston Beer Company. Paul discusses The Boston Beer Company and their foray into cannabis-infused beverages in Canada. Weaver shares why tea was the perfect vehicle for a THC-infused drink, how the July launch of Teapot has gone, and how the narrative of cannabis stealing occasions from beer has changed.From the very beginning, Jim Koch wanted to create a company that he would want to work for. The Boston Beer Company worked hard at maintaining that culture through the successes and growth they have enjoyed over the past 30+ years. Today, The Boston Beer Company continues to be a team of enthusiastic, creative, and competitive people who are passionate about raising the bar in everything that they do.

The Head of Cannabis at The Boston Beer Company Paul Weaver

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Miss Grass is Weed for the Times. If you listen really hard, your inner voice is telling you what you need. Time for inspiration or restoration. Time for introspection or play. Time for connection or release. Whatever you need, Miss Grass enhances the Time of your life. Fast Times, Quiet Times, All Times—and every moment in between.Miss Grass is Sustainably grown and terpene rich. They work closely with their cultivators to choose strains that contain the same terpene and cannabinoid profiles batch-to-batch and state-to-state—so you always know what kind of high to expect. Available in California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Illinois, and New Jersey.Federally legal, sustainably grown, full-spectrum with high percentages of CBD. Our Miss Grass CBD Hemp + Herb Minis are available in little boxes of five .4g Mini pre-rolls blended with adaptogenic herbs that create heightened effects without the THC. Available nationwide.

Miss Grass With CEO Kate Miller

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Peter Caldini joined Acreage Holdings in December 2020 as Chief Executive Officer after serving for 18 months as the Chief Executive Officer and a director of Bespoke Capital Acquisition Corp., a cannabis-focused Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation.Mr. Caldini has over 30 years of experience building and restructuring multinational organizations around the world, with a strong emphasis on consumer healthcare and consumer packaged goods. He developed extensive commercial management expertise in heavily regulated industries while at Pfizer Inc., Bayer AG, and Wyeth, LLC. Mr. Caldini was the Regional President of North America for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare from 2017 to 2019, where he drove brand acceleration, marketing strategy, trade execution, global e-commerce, and more for the second-largest OTC consumer healthcare company in the region with over the U.S.$2.1 billion in net sales. Prior to that role he was the Regional President of EMEA of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare from 2016 to 2017 and led the Northern European cluster from 2015 to 2016. Mr. Caldini was at Bayer from 2009 to 2014, with roles including the head of sub-region Emerging Markets EMEA, the General Manager of Bayer Consumer Care China, and the head of the Nutritionals Strategic Business unit, the global leader in nutritional supplements with brands One-A-Day, Berocca, and Supradyn. From 2002 to 2009 Mr. Caldini was at Wyeth LLC where he was responsible for affiliates across LATAM and AsiaPac and also managed the Centrum brand globally.

Acreage Holdings With Peter Caldini

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We’re happy to welcome back a return guest to Plant Prophets. He is a seasoned Canadian capital markets executive with experience in building and managing public companies in emerging industries. He runs researching and developing new ways of distilling and purifying mushrooms in order to harness their healing properties.The first product from Psyched Wellness, Stevens <a href="https://hightimes.com/health/psyched-wellness-listed-canadian-securities-exchange/" rel="nofollow">told High Times</a>, is slated to be a tincture made from Amanita muscaria, likely “the most recognized mushroom in the world. If you think of Alice in Wonderland, Super Mario Brothers, even the emoji on your telephone is likely an Amanita.”Another Canadian company is positioning itself to be ready to offer consumer products manufactured from psychotropic fungus. Dubbed Psyched Wellness, the firm is preparing to file a listing statement with regulators this week and hopes to be trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange by this summer, according to CEO Jeff Stevens.

Psyched Wellness Ltd. With Jeff Stevens

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Queen Mary is a brand designed for today’s everyday women which focuses on the Professional Woman and Stay-at-Home mom. They are reinventing the old cliché’ that marijuana is a drug reserved for stoners to sit around behind closed doors and simply just get high. Today’s woman has so much on her plate, the pressure of her responsibilities and obligations can become overwhelming. Over the last two decades alone the rise in the use of prescribed depressants, stimulants, and opiates has led to addictions and overdoses at an alarming rate. Having witnessed this destruction in our own family, Queen Mary is a brand designed to give women back their power and vivify their day.Whether you need stress relief, a boost of energy, or help to get a good night&#39;s sleep Queen Mary is more than a brand it’s a homage to today’s woman. It’s time to straighten our crowns and be queen.

Queen Mary with CEO Tiana Woodruff

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Andrew Freedman made history in 2014 when then-Governor John Hickenlooper tapped him to become Colorado’s cannabis czar, in charge of implementing the world’s first adult-use cannabis market. Since then, he has advised 17 different governments in establishing their cannabis regulatory frameworks.The Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation&#39;s (CPEAR) mission is to advance a comprehensive federal regulatory framework for cannabis. The coalition consists of members representing regulated industries, academics, think tanks, public safety officials, medical and mental health professionals, financial services firms, and social equity organizations, all of whom are developing policies and building a national conversation on the federal regulation of cannabis. Together this coalition strives to be a trusted, science-driven resource for lawmakers and the larger stakeholder community as we collaborate to develop responsible policies that provide access to cannabis while protecting consumers and patients, barring underage use, upholding public health and safety, and promoting equity.

Coalition for Cannabis Policy With Andrew Freedman

Plant Prophets introduces you to some of the most forward-thinking executives and companies in the cannabis industry Host Vern Davis, speaks to those who are at the forefront of creating real companies and creating real career opportunities.

Plant Prophets introduces you to some of the most forward-thinking executives and companies in the cannabis industry Host Vern Davis speaks to those who are at the forefront of creating real companies and creating real career opportunities.