LEADERSHIP
Jess leads the team producing MJBizCon, the multiple-award winning trade show that tens of thousands of cannabis professionals attend each fall in Las Vegas. She is a proud member of the Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO) and the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) having earned her Certified in Exhibition Management (CEM) designation. She holds a BA degree from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville.
Pamela has been a B2B communications leader for over 20 years, working in sectors as diverse as clinical medicine and advanced manufacturing. Rooted as a journalist, she led content and strategy for events and media teams at UBM as well as overseeing the company’s internal communications and internal and external re-brand. Folio Magazine named her a “Corporate Visionary” and one of the “Top Women in Media.” She joined MJBizDaily in fall 2019, overseeing the editorial team and media revenue.
EDITORIAL
Roger is an award-winning journalist with decades of business news experience, covering everything from Wall Street regulation to the oil markets and craft brewing. He’s worked for Reuters, The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. He’s also worked as a freelancer for MSNBC.com, Inc. and other publications.
Kate is the editor of MJBizMagazine, which provides tips and actionable advice to marijuana business executives. She brings to the MJBiz team more than 20 years of editorial experience, including a decade managing a wine industry trade magazine in California. Kate graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in print journalism, and her career has seen her working in newsrooms of daily newspapers across the United States.
Omar has been a professional journalist since 1998, covering everything from international business and Wall Street to politics and religion. His stories have appeared in Newsweek International, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today and other major outlets. Omar graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1998, and prior to that he was a Bosnian diplomat. He is based in Boston.
Based in Ontario, Canada, Solomon covers the Canadian marijuana industry and cannabis cultivation for MJBizDaily. He previously covered cannabis for the Winnipeg Free Press, where he launched a Canadian cannabis news vertical called The Leaf News. Before that, Solomon covered business news for Canada’s national public broadcaster, CBC News, as an online reporter and a TV news producer. Solomon holds a master’s degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.
Matt is based in the Greater Toronto Area and covers international cannabis markets for Marijuana Business Daily. Previously, he worked as a business editor, photographer and reporter for newspapers and magazines in three countries, covering everything from the oil and gas industry in northern British Columbia to North Korean defectors in Seoul.
Based in Toronto, Kate has been writing about cannabis for industry-focused publications and mainstream outlets such as the Guardian, Globe and Mail, Postmedia and Maclean’s since 2017. Before developing a marijuana beat, she was the online and social media manager for alt-weekly NOW Magazine. Kate graduated with a master of arts in journalism from Western University in London, Ontario, in 2008.
Chris Casacchia is an award-winning journalist, editor and media consultant based in Los Angeles. As technology editor of the Orange County Business Journal, he profiled some of the most influential executives and companies in the world. Before moving to California, he served as a staff writer at the Phoenix Business Journal, where he chronicled the subprime mortgage meltdown and global financial crises in one of the hardest hit markets in the nation. His newspaper career began in his native Chicago, covering everything from wrongful convictions to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. His work has appeared in MSN Money, Los Angeles Business Journal, California Business Journal, Sporting News and other major outlets. He earned a Master’s degree from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where he served as an adjunct professor.
Chris has covered cannabis since spending a few months in Humboldt County in 2009, with bylines in The Guardian, VICE, Daily Beast, SF Weekly, Forbes.com, Leafly and many others. He won an investigative reporting award for a Curbed SF series revealing fraud at a radioactive U.S. Navy shipyard in San Francisco. He lives in New York City.