Elevate Your Grind

Joe is the CEO and co-founder of the Cannabis investment group, Ceres Group Holdings. He is a cannabis industry investor, entrepreneur, and a former portfolio manager. After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Joe spent 4 years as a commodities arbitrage trader followed by 12 years in the private and small institutions portfolio management group at Goldman Sachs. Since its founding in late 2016, Ceres Group has completed cannabis brand, ancillary, and international deals. Joe currently sits on the board of Fotmer Life Sciences Uruguay, a federally licensed cannabis producer and exporter of medical product to legal markets around the world. Prior to founding Ceres Group, Joe started a cannabis distribution & transportation company brokering trim and other input materials to cannabis manufacturers for use in their final products. Joe has also passed levels 1 & 2 of the Chartered Financial Analyst Program.

Mike McDonald brings over 30 years of leadership excellence, focusing on forging partnerships and building brands. Experienced in consumer products manufacturing, finance, marketing and sales, Mike guides Ammonite’s rapid development from a start-up to one of the most innovative hardware platforms in the cannabis industry. In addition to his role at Ammonite, Mike holds an advisor role at California cannabis pioneer Jetty Extracts and was formerly Jetty’s Chief Corporate Development Officer.  Mike is a Board Director at Solight Designs, an innovative socially conscious solar lantern company focused on direct to consumer sales, NGO disaster relief, and impoverished communities.  Mike is the former President of Concreteworks Studio, where he managed the firm’s growth from 30 to 120 employees and was responsible for the Apple, Inc, and Restoration Hardware relationships. Mike has also held leadership roles at Giant Bicycle and snow sports start-up Atlas Snowshoes, where he spearheaded the company’s acquisition by publicly traded K2 Sports.

David Dinenberg is the Founder and CEO of KIND Financial.   Over the past 18 years, David has worked in several successful ventures across in Finance, Real Estate, and Entertainment. Prior to KIND, David Dinenberg spent 8 years as the COO and a Partner at Grasso Holdings, a full-service real estate development company, where he ran day-to-day operations for the 45 person organization managing an asset portfolio valued in excess of $400 million.

David is an active member of the cannabis community acting as a mentor to Greenhouse Ventures, a business accelerator program specific for ancillary startups in the cannabis industry.    He has also been a featured speaker at several cannabis conferences including the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Cannabis Business Summit & Expo, the Native American Marijuana & Hemp Conference, and the Marijuana Business Conference & Expo.

Robert Beasley, a native Floridian, co-founded the law firm of Litvak, Beasley Wilson & Ball in 2001. As a consultant, Robert has advised multiple parties to obtain cannabis licenses and create related financing facilities in Florida, Oregon, California, and Washington, D.C. Also, Robert has participated in the design and construction of five cannabis cultivation and processing facilities, served as Board of Manager of the leading independent cannabis physician clinic group in Florida, and participated in the legislative and rulemaking process related to Florida’s Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act.  In 2016 Robert contributed to the Florida Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative, also known as Amendment 2.

Mr. Arellano is an accomplished executive and award-winning accelerator of lifestyle brands. He has created and produced internationally recognized campaigns for some of the world's leading brands including Nike, Red Bull and Incase. As a career marketing specialist, Sam's 20-year work history spans men's contemporary apparel, sporting goods and consumer electronics. Prior to joining CANNDESCENT Sam served as CMO for Lumos Labs – a Hong Kong based manufacturer of Bluetooth enabled bicycle helmets sold exclusively at Apple.

Brooks Lustig is the CEO at Seed & Smith, a Colorado cannabis grow and marijuana dispensary providing premium-crafted wholesale cannabis concentrate, medical cannabis, and recreational cannabis. A native of Boulder, Colorado, Lustig had grew up seeing the success of legacy industries such as craft beer and herbal tea, and set his hopes on normalizing adult-use cannabis as a similar societal staple.

Rebecca Allison is the VP of Brand Marketing at Parallel, a MSO home to Florida's MMTC brand Surterra Wellness. Rebeca has led the development and launch of multiple new brands, the creation of 40+ new products, expansion into new state markets, and countless other efforts that helped to expand Parallel's mission of pioneering a new paradigm of well-being.

Mike Simpson is a seasoned entrepreneur specializing in transformational innovation across a wide variety of industries and countries. He has spent much of the last 15 years conceiving and developing next generation products for British American Tobacco in Japan, Hong Kong and in the US. Mike is one of the world’s leading experts in the field of Heat-Not-Burn technology and has spent the last 5 years researching the cannabis market.

Charles Warner is the CEO of Innovative Properties Worldwide, a veteran-owned media company headquartered in Denver with offices around the country. At IPW, Warner is responsible for overseeing the companies many areas of specialization to include custom publishing, sponsorship sales and onsite activation, audience development, sales training, and media placement. Flagship publications include Innovation & Tech Today, Residential Tech Today, STEM Today, Sustainability Today and Cannabis & Tech Today; print and digital titles with onsite distribution and a guaranteed audience delivery with BtoB and high-end BtoC influencer audiences.

Jeremy Guttveg has been a creative and digital marketer for over five years, working with a number of entrepreneurs, artists, start-ups, and established organizations. Florida native and graduate of Florida State, he is now the Marketing Director for Florida MMTC VidaCann where he oversees day-to-day operations of their marketing department. Jeremy has lead the creation and implementation of VidaCann's branding standards, digital marketing strategies, and the opening campaigns for their 13 newest storefronts throughout Florida, now totaling 17 locations.