Marijuana Business Magazine February 2020

Marijuana Business Magazine | February 2020 104 Industry Players | New Hires & Promotions Evergreen Market Hires CEO Evergreen Market, a retailer in Renton, Washington, appointed Shannon Vetto as its first CEO. The retailer’s day-to-day operations had been managed by founders Jeff Anderson, Eric Gaston and Arne Nelson, but the three decided to hand the wheel to Vetto, who served as Evergreen Market’s chief strategy officer since 2017. Vetto spent 19 years as an executive at Russell Indexes, a Seattle-based family of stock market indices. Vetto also has seven years of tax/audit experience. Founded in 2014, Evergreen has five stores entering 2020 with plans to open more. Oklahoma Retailer Enlists New CEO The Peak Dispensary, an Oklahoma- based chain of franchised and corporate-owned medical cannabis dispensaries, appointed Blake Cantrell , most recently general counsel, as CEO. Cantrell succeeds Corbin Wyatt , who, The Peak said in a news release, was removed as CEO by its board because his “management and leadership of The Peak Dispensary did not align with the culture, values and needs of the company’s rapidly growing business. Wyatt’s tenure as CEO left The Peak no choice but to protect its brand by filing legal action to ensure that several retail locations operating under the brand, with which Wyatt was associated, did not continue to unlawfully affiliate themselves with The Peak.” Former Regulator Joins Marijuana Firm Joy Strand , former executive director of the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, joined Green Leaf Medical, a cannabis firm in the state. Green Leaf hired Strand, who resigned from the commission in September 2019, as executive vice president. Her role will be to coordinate the company’s govern- ment relations in several states. WeedMD Hires Symes to Manage Subsidiary WeedMD, a federally licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis in Canada, appointed Tricia Symmes as general manager of CX Industries, a subsidiary that specializes in extraction, toll processing and third-party product formulation. Symmes most recently was the CEO of Acerus Pharmaceuticals in Ontario. She also has been a general manager at Alcon Canada and vice president of sales and marketing at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Symmes will lead CX Industries’ commercial operations and the development of new business channels and product development for both the adult-use and medical markets. Logan Marynissen is joining CX as director of extraction. Marynissen spent the past four years overseeing Canopy Growth’s extraction operations in Ontario. His role is to optimize WeedMD’s extraction operations and provide technical oversight for the production of new cannabis products.  Vicente Sederberg Hires New Attorneys The founders of Los Angeles cannabis business firm Frontera Law Group, Luke Stanton and Jeffrey Welsh , have joined Vicente Sederberg as partners. Stanton and Welsh founded  Frontera in 2015. Stanton is also a founding partner at Skyfront Holdings, an international insurance platform that specializes in emerging markets, including marijuana and hemp, as well as managing partner of Skytree Capital Partners, a Nevada-based private equity firm. Welsh is a co-founder of Composite Agency, a full-service creative agency in Venice, California. The firm also recently hired associate attorney Christina Sava in San Francisco. Sava previously was a managing attorney at the Anthony Law Group in Oakland, California.  Tilray Hires Mattel Exec Tilray appointed Katy Dickson as president of Manitoba Harvest, a large international hemp company acquired by the British Columbia-based marijuana producer. Dickson joined Tilray from global toy and entertainment leader Mattel, where she served as senior vice president, global brand general manager and president of the American Girl collection. Before Mattel, Dickson worked for global media and information leader NewsCorp, where she served as executive vice president and global chief marketing officer for the company’s News America Marketing division. Before joining NewsCorp, Dickson spent nearly 25 years with General Mills, where she held numerous senior marketing and brand-management roles. Hired or promoted someone for a senior-level position? Send a news release or general information to omars@mjbizdaily.com . Jeffrey Welsh Luke Stanton