Plant Prophets

Corporate Social Responsibility In Cannabis with Dr. Chanda Macias, CEO of Ilera Holistic Healthcare and Chairwoman of the Board of Managers and CEO of Women Grow. Our guest today has been utilizing her knowledge and skills in academia, government, technology, and the cannabis industry to successfully leverage business implications and opportunities. Before finding her way to the cannabis industry, Chanda earned a Ph.D. in cellular biology from Howard University, where she studied breast and bone cancer and developed a model to understand how prostate cancer metastasizes to bone. After graduating, Chanda became a research scientist at Colgate-Palmolive and played an instrumental role in launching two billion-dollar brands. Shortly after, Chanda took over as the Director of STEM Education at Howard University, where she was awarded millions of dollars in federally funded grants and trained aspiring scientists and doctors in biomedical research. Chanda serves as the First Vice-Chair of The National Cannabis Roundtable. They recently launched its Corporate Social Responsibility program. The National Cannabis Roundtable promotes common-sense federal regulation, tax equality, and financial services reform and supports changing federal law to acknowledge states’ rights to regulate and manage cannabis policy. The membership of NCR represents every aspect of the cannabis supply chain.

Canndescent with CMO Sam Arellano. Our guest is an accomplished, entrepreneur-minded executive and award-winning accelerator of lifestyle brands. He’s created and produced nationally recognized campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands including Nike, Red Bull, and Incase. His 20-year work history spans men’s contemporary apparel, sporting goods, and consumer electronics. In 2006 Sam co-founded Graphite Brand Design - a Los Angeles based creative agency focused on luxury goods, contemporary fashion, and street culture. During his four years at Graphite, Sam secured major account wins including the Agency of Record for leading Apple accessories brand, Incase. In addition, Sam led multimillion-dollar projects for Toyota, MTV, ROXY, Moleskine, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and has worked with the world’s foremost street artists including KAWS, Evan Hecox, and Shepard Fairey. Sam serves as an advisor to technology start-up MavFarm, Inc., makers of the Sho_w app - the first interactive mobile camera and shoppable video-sharing marketplace for art, music, and fashion enthusiasts; and to ICAN Los Angeles, a supported employment agency created to help mentally disabled young people find meaningful employment around LA.

Ensuring diversity in the cannabis industry with Jeff Gray, CEO of SC Labs. Today's guest is one of the few African American industry executives in cannabis, who has made diverse hiring practices a priority long before the current news cycle. He and his team see the opportunity to take a young industry like cannabis and ensure that diversity is built-in from the beginning. Jeff Gray, CEO, and Co-Founder of SC Laboratories has already signed up for endocoronavirus.org and was impressed by “the activation and engagement” of the scientific community. “While cannabis labs could accommodate PCR testing, many would need plenty of time to support a potential retrofit of the facility or test area, amendments to testing procedures, revised safe handling protocols, and result-reporting modifications,” said Gray.

The Cannabis PR Queen, Rosie Mattio, Founder & CEO of MATTIO Communications joins us today on Plant Prophets.
Rosie is the CEO and founder of MATTIO Communications, one of the top cannabis PR firms in the country and has been named a High Times Female 50 and Forbes Fifteen Powerful And Innovative Women In Cannabis. When Rosie moved to Seattle with her family in 2014, Washington had just legalized adult-use marijuana, making it the second in the country after Colorado. Having launched her own one-person PR shop ten years earlier, Mattio quickly realized her background and expertise could fit a much-needed niche in the then-emerging cannabis space. Since then, the indefatigable Mattio, 38, has undergone a dazzling career trajectory. Her eponymous New York City-based firm MATTIO Communications, for which she serves as CEO, has attracted kudos and top-tier clients, among them Headset, a provider of analytics for the cannabis industry and Canadian cannabis company TerrAscend. Last year, MATTIO secured over 3,000 media placements for clients, generating four times the revenue from the previous year. It’s been a very heady and hectic road for Mattio but clearly one she wouldn’t have any other way. MATTIO Communications is a diverse, deeply curious and hard-working team. Although they each have different backgrounds and talents, what unifies them is the belief that well-told stories contribute to a more interesting and intelligent world. Headquartered in New York City, MATTIO Communications is an award-winning, independent marketing and communications firm that serves local and national cannabis and lifestyle clients.

Curbside and in-store cannabis pickup with Erich Mauff, President and co-founder of Jushi Holdings. Our guest today spent over 20 years in the banking sector with Deutsche Bank, first heading their Capital Markets & Treasury Solutions group, then serving as Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Corporate Finance for North America. When Jushi Holdings was founded by Erich Mauff and his partners, Jim Cacioppo, Jon Barack, and Denis Arsenault. Together, they have more than a century of combined merger and acquisition, private equity, and distressed and special investment experience. The multi-state cannabis and hemp operator has a two-pronged approach to growth: target adult-use markets and limited-license medical markets. Jushi recently launched a new, digital online shopping experience at www.beyond-hello.com. The company is coupling with convenient curbside and in-store pickup for BEYOND/HELLO retail customers. We talk about how while some marijuana businesses are eliminating employees, selling off assets, and halting expansion plans, others are hiring and acquiring other companies. Regardless of the situation in which you find your cannabis business, you can expect major change when the recession subsides.

Health is the Truest Wealth with Kelly Dooley, CEO of Kanna Kingdom. Our next guest is currently developing female friendly CBD and THC goods that invite all women to experience cannabis, and working to build a unique online community that celebrates the new legal lifestyle. Her father had a business manufacturing oil pans and her mother ran a swimming pool supply firm, and Dooley had accompanied both to work from a young age. So she dove in, with $50,000 in seed money drawn from an inheritance. She started sourcing materials, developing a design gallery and marketing strategy, hiring a legal team and creating a digital storefront. Design ideas often occurred to her while in the shower, or in dreams. There were plenty of less glamorous tasks, such as hauling trash bags filled with finished bras from the manufacturer to her Murray Hill apartment.

The hottest market segment in the cannabis industry with Pranav Sood, Founder, and CEO of Trellis. Seed-to-sale is arguably the hottest market segment in the cannabis industry. My next guest’s company is one of the hottest startups in the cannabis industry thanks to a seed round of funding that was led by Snoop Dogg’s venture capital firm, Casa Verde Capital. Trellis has origins in Toronto but was recently accepted into and subsequently funded by the Gateway Accelerator program in Oakland, California.

Cannabis Is A Basic Human Right with CEO & Co-Founder of The People's Dispensary, Christine De La Rosa. The People's Dispensary was created to serve the most vulnerable of our population. The People's Dispensary creates spaces and curates products that enhance the lives of our communities, individually and collectively. They believe that cannabis is an alternative medicine that is a basic human right. Christine is passionate about the industry that saved her life. At the top of her tech career, she almost died from complications of undiagnosed Lupus. In 2015, she found cannabis as an alternative to treat her lupus. No longer bound to 11 pills a day or monthly infusions, she was inspired by her experience to open Benefit Health Collective in 2016, along with her three co-founders to help those who most need access to cannabis. Together they have grown a profitable multistate dispensary and a fiercely sought after national social equity model and enterprise now known as The People’s Dispensary. Christine sits on the board of the Access and Innovation Project and is a committee member of the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee.

Redefining Cannabis For Women with Erin Gore (Founder and CEO) and Karli Warner (Co-Founder and CMO) of Garden Society. The Garden Society is not your average cannabis company. They're here to break the stigma while completely redefining cannabis for women. They understand how to bring cannabis into women's daily life in ways you will relate to. And get excited about it. Their all about making cannabis a simple, vital part of people's daily lives.

Social equity in cannabis with Karim Webb the CEO of 4thMVMT and multi-unit Franchisee of Buffalo Wild Wings. 4thMVMT is a Los Angeles based firm that seeks, vets, trains, finances, and partners with individuals from “underserved communities” to own and operate competitive retail businesses. Webb’s entrepreneurial experience and history of engagement within “at-risk youth” in Los Angeles has lead him to his true life purpose, philanthropic work promoting leadership development, and entry-level employment as a gateway to a fulfilled life. Karim believes opportunity and progress do not just happen but that working toward creating even the smallest ripple is capable of causing a wave of positive results. Under his leadership, Webb’s Team Members have learned to activate possibility in their lives by exercising their muscles of excellence. Beyond Buffalo Wild Wings and 4thMVMT, Karim is an advisor to the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA) and holds a number of Board positions including the California Community Foundation, the Brotherhood Crusade, Everytable, and the Living Through Giving Foundation: Hashtag Lunchbag.