Marijuana Business Magazine May-June 2019

Marijuana Business Magazine | May-June 2019 138 Industry Players | New Hires & Promotions L ast September, a fellow board member at Cisco Systems told Carol Bartz , a former CEO of Yahoo and Autodesk, about a cannabis cream his wife used to help her with the aches of playing tennis. Intrigued, Bartz started visiting California dispensaries to learn more and discovered that a couple she knew were the parents of Dennis O’Malley, president of San Jose-based Caliva, one of the largest vertically integrated marijuana companies in California. O’Malley invited Bartz for a tour of his company in December. Impressed, Bartz—along with NFL legend Joe Montana and other investors—contributed to a $75 million Caliva raise in January. Caliva asked Bartz to join the board soon after. “They wanted someone who’d been in a high- growth area and had done a lot of hiring,” Bartz told Marijuana Business Magazine. “All of the things that the (cannabis) industry is going through (are similar to) what we faced in the tech industry.” In March, Caliva appointed Bartz as its chair. Since then, she has been recruiting and interviewing high-level candidates as well as helping Caliva hone its strategy. “I think the main thing for anybody in the cannabis industry is: What is your strategy? Because it’s a land grab, and you might grab too many disparate things and then you have nothing. Basic strategy is something you should bounce off everybody; that’s why a board is good, because it’s not immersed in the day to day,” Bartz said. “When anything moves this quickly—and this is the way it was in tech— deciding what is your list of things to do and your priorities and how that ties into how fast you can grow or how fast you can expand, is the No. 1 issue for management.” Former Yahoo CEO Offers MJ Company Strategy and Branding Carol Bartz A look at some recent hiring moves in the marijuana industry  Heavy-Hitting Door-Opener Nelson Peltz Joins Aurora Cannabis Nelson Peltz — co-founder of New York-based, multibillion-dollar asset-management firm Trian Fund Management, director of Procter & Gamble and chair of fast-food holding company Wendy’s—joined Aurora Cannabis as a strategic adviser to help the Canadian company lock in partnerships and expand interna- tionally. The move is seen as a major vote of confidence for Aurora and the broader marijuana industry. The Edmonton, Alberta-based company will grant Peltz options to purchase almost 20 million shares in the company at $7.73 (CA$10.34) apiece, making him the second-larg- est shareholder, if exercised. The deal does not involve Peltz joining Aurora’s board. Aurora’s move to bring in Peltz comes after competitors Canopy Growth and Cronos Group locked up multibillion-dollar investments from respected non-cannabis companies. Analysts said Peltz would open doors for Aurora to partner with major companies. High Times Welcomes New CEO High Times Holding, the owner of High Times magazine and its affiliated Cannabis Cup events, appointed influential media veteran Kraig Fox as its newest CEO. Fox was a founder of SFX Entertainment (now Live Nation), where he was chief development officer from 1995 to 2000, and also was founder and chief operating officer of Core Media, a New York City company that develops enter- tainment content and intellectual property. He later became senior managing director of entertainment and media at Guggenheim Partners, a New York City investment firm, and most recently worked at Eldridge Industries, an investment business in Greenwich, Connecticut. At High Times Holding, which also owns Dope Magazine, Culture Magazine and Green Rush Daily, Fox By Omar Sacirbey Carol Bartz