August 2018

NEW HlRES & PROMOTlONS By Omar Sacirbey Acreage Hires Head of Operations It had been roughly 14 years since Jamil Myrie , a veteran of the eyecare industry, had been in contact with George Allen , president of Acreage Holdings, a multistate cannabis com- pany with headquarters in New York. When Myrie and Allen were under- grads at Harvard and Yale, respec- tively, they had mutual friends and got to know each other when their schools met on the football field. They stayed in touch for several years, but the two had lost touch by the time they turned 30. Then, earlier this year, Myrie came across Allen’s comments on Acreage tapping former Ohio Congressman John Boehner for its board and decided to reach out. “I sent him a quick email to catch up; it was nothing more than that,” Myrie recalled. “But as it turned out, he was actually looking for a head of operations.” Allen and Myrie reconnected, and before long, Allen had hired Myrie for the position at Acreage. You might say it was a hire with vision. Myrie spent more than 16 years leading real estate, strategic planning, asset management and operations efforts at For Eyes, a national chain of eyeglass stores. He also was in charge of maximizing efficiency when GrandVision, a chain with roughly 1,000 retail locations, acquired For Eyes in 2015. In his new role, Myrie will manage Acreage’s retail port- folio, which covers 12 states, and will lead the develop- ment, launch and management of a multistate retail brand concept Acreage plans to announce later this year. “Given the nuances and complexities of the cannabis landscape in the United States, my experience operating in the interesting and complex landscape of compliance in the optical industry – retail and health care, dealing with HIPAA and patient-care regulations – has more than equipped me for this role,” Myrie said. A look at some recent hiring moves in the marijuana industry & Movers SHAKERS ( ) Jamil Myrie 116 • Marijuana Business Magazine • August 2018