Taking Root - A Cannabis Podcast Chad Frey

Luis Merchan, President and CEO of Flora Growth Corp., is a New York & Miami -based executive with over a decade of proven experience in enterprise sales management, corporate strategy, merchandising and expense management, and customer experience. Prior to joining the team at Flora Growth, Merchan previously served as Macy’s Inc.’s Vice President of Workforce Strategy and Operations where he managed the enterprise's multi-billion-dollar P&L expense line for the 540 store portfolio and led various sales and marketing initiatives including the B2B corporate sales team responsible for $160 million in annual revenue.

During Luis’ term as Flora CEO, the company has added over 10,000 new investors, went public on the Nasdaq in May 2021, and is now organized to support a portfolio of organic cannabis-based products rapidly growing through acquisitions and partnerships. Merchan holds a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from Pontifical Xaverian University in Bogota, Colombia, an MBA from McNeese State University & a Graduate Cert. in Marketing Management from Harvard.

For more information on Luis and Flora Growth please visit:
www.linkedin.com/in/merchanluis
floragrowth.com
JustCBD

Andrea E. Holmes, Ph.D., obtained her doctorate degree in organic chemistry at New York University and her post-doctorate at Columbia University where she held a national research fellowship through the Department of Chemistry and the College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York. She also holds courtesy associate professorship appointments at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha, Nebraska.

Dr. Holmes has pioneered a new, consumer-driven market of THC-free cannabis-based products. She has also headed up the efforts to push new frontiers of science in the discovery of novel minor cannabinoids that are known for wellness benefits.  In her on-campus classroom at Doane University, Dr. Holmes teaches organic chemistry and applies classical organic chemistry concepts and topics to cannabis chemistry.

For more information on Dr. Holmes please visit:
www.linkedin.com/in/andreaholmes1/
www.doane.edu/andrea-holmes
www.earthsapothecaryco.com

Josh was a founder of Grassroots Cannabis, a Chicago-based multi-state cannabis company that was founded in 2014 with a sale exit of the company in July 2020 for approximately $850.0 million.   Starting with three successful dispensary license applications in Illinois, Josh and his partners built Grassroots into the largest privately-held cannabis company in the United States and the 5th largest cannabis company including all the publicly traded cannabis companies up until the company’s sale.  Josh oversaw all real estate site selection, municipal and governmental approvals for the company’s cultivation, processing, and retail store footprints.  Upon the exit of the company, GR was in 12 states and had grown to over 1,100 employees.

Josh has spent the majority of his professional career in commercial real estate with Principal and brokerage transactions totaling in excess of $1.0 billion.  He has consummated real estate deals in over 40 states within the United States and has acquired, developed, sold, and valued properties in nearly every asset class within the real estate industry.  
For more on Josh, Big Plan Holdings, and the team visit:
https://www.bigplanholdings.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-joseph-61456622/

Meet the co-founders of Leafsheets. For the last seven years, Juliana Whitney has been paving her path in the cannabis industry. After getting her MBA in 2015 she decided to take some time to herself and she took a job at a front desk in a dispensary. That's when her world changed. From observing, networking, documenting, to reverse engineering and applying all of her skills and talents back to real-world strategy, she broke down the barriers in her own story to get where she is today. Nick Bembenek knows what those barriers to entry are like as well. As a 10 year entrepreneur, he's had his hand in over 25 startups and has helped design and direct many of those into companies that have taken traction.

If you're looking to make SOPs a breeze 🌬️  for your cannabis business, and make key information accessible without having to search Google for 9,000 hours just to get a straight answer, look no further than Leafsheets.

For more on Juliana, Nick, and Leafsheets, visit:
Website: https://www.leafsheets.com/
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/company/leafsheets/
Email:  media@leafsheets.com

At the young age of 19, Duree Ross fell in love with the industry of public relations. Now, after 20+ years in the industry,  she's leading a talented team of media relations and marketing specialists in South Florida. The reach of her PR agency, Durée & Company, is global with clients who provide services and impact lives from South Florida to around the world.

We talk about women in cannabis,  best practices for marketing and PR, unsightly roadblocks you should look out for in the industry, and how she thinks companies should navigate the current cannabis, hemp, CBD industry and stay ahead of the changing landscape.

For more on Duree and the team visit:
https://dureeandcompany.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dureeross/

In this episode, Mike Fata talks about how his entrepreneurship has motivated him throughout his life. Starting out with no money, no experience, and no high school education. He found his passion for health after losing 100 Lbs and going all-in on my health food business, Manitoba Harvest. Spending countless hours building his dream.

The community he built, the lessons he learned, and the life experiences he gained; have all added up to a tremendous amount of success. 

Mike now is giving back to the next wave of movers and shakers. He developed Fata & Fleishman Mentorship with Greg Fleishman,  a free entrepreneurial community support system created by Natural CPG founders who themselves have spent over 20 years starting, ramping, and successfully exiting businesses.

Currently, he is  Chief Executive Officer of Fata & Associates, a keynote speaker, host of Founder to Mentor podcast, Global Growth Advisor of Mid-Day Squares, Chairman of the Board of Nuts for Cheese, Director (Past Chairman) of the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA), and investor/advisor to a portfolio of companies.
For more information and resources via the toolkit visit: fatafleishman.org

To contact Mike, find him on LinkedIn here: linkedin.com/in/themikefata

Twitter: @themikefata
instagram: @themikefata
www.mikefata.ca