Cresco Labs, a Chicago-based marijuana multistate operator, appointed Michele Roberts to its board of directors, making the executive director of the NBA players union the first person of color on the board.
The announcement comes a few days after Cresco’s co-founder and former president, Joe Caltabiano, resigned from the board, thus cutting all executive ties with the company he helped found in 2013.
Roberts, a longtime trial lawyer, arrives at the company at a time when protests across the United States have prompted calls for companies to do more by way of social equity.
“We are advocates of a more diverse and inclusive cannabis industry,” Cresco CEO and co-founder Charlie Bachtell said in a news release.
For a sampling of organizations and efforts that support, foster and enhance social equity in the cannabis industry as well as opportunities for minorities, overall diversity and racial justice, click here.
