Plant Prophets

Aaron Miles currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of Verano, and over the course of his more than 19 years of financial and capital markets experience, he has served in leadership roles across a variety of Fortune 500 companies and industries.

His background and expertise spans capital markets, investor relations, corporate development, treasury and communication roles in large and diversified corporations that include Abbott Laboratories, CME Group, Navigant, Tribune Publishing Company, the New York Stock Exchange, and most recently, Cresco Labs.

Among his many accomplishments, Miles has distinguished himself as a cannabis industry leader in the financial and investor relations space, having notably assisted in taking both Cresco Labs and Verano’s public on the Canadian Securities Exchange in 2018 and 2021, respectively.

In his current role as Chief Investment Officer, Miles serves as a member of Verano’s executive leadership team and is active in leading the company’s capital markets and investor relations activities.

Alison Di Spaltro is a seasoned executive highly skilled in building businesses from the ground up with a people-first focus. She combines an aptitude for launching and scaling operations in technology and other fast-moving sectors with an entrepreneur’s drive and a passion for empowering consumers in their health and wellness.

Alison’s engineering background informs her systems-based approaches to operational oversight and team-building. She takes a hands-on role as CEO of Escape Artists, setting the course for the company’s expansion strategy, its infrastructure growth, and aligning business development, client relationships, and product R&D. She’s committed to setting a new standard for corporate culture in the cannabis industry.

Alison graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in Environmental Engineering and worked in the Bay Area on federal remediation projects before transitioning into business operations roles in Silicon Valley. She has worked with multiple bay area startups to help them set up and scale their business operations. Alison is a mother of three who loves hiking and exploring with her family in Northern California.

Artemis Holdings are venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, consultants, financiers, scientists, and board directors of public and private companies. They are a bridge to the future of the cannabis industry while being mindful of the past. Artemis brings best-in-class companies to you. They believe that a thriving cannabis industry benefits the health and wellness of humanity. They also invest in exceptional teams that have the vision and, with their support, ability to create truly great companies.

Jessica Billingsley and Samantha Ford at The Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference. Our first guest is CEO of the first cannabis compliance technology company to be traded on Nasdaq making her the first CEO from this market to bring a company to a major U.S. exchange. She has recognized for Fortune’s “Most Promising Women Entrepreneur Award,” is also recognized as one of Inc.’s “Female Founders 100,” and was chosen for Entrepreneur Magazine’s inaugural 100 Powerful Women list. Jessica Billingsley has served as MJ Freeway’s Chief Executive Officer since April 2018. She co-founded MJ Freeway in 2010 and served as President from 2010 to April 2018. Prior to MJ Freeway, Jessica was CEO and founder of Zoco, a technology services firm with clients across the United States. Next, we talk to Samantha Ford of Protis Global. Samantha is all about the hustle. She is sharp, fun and quite exceptional at most things she puts her mind to. She’s been in executive search for over 20 years. She successfully built a search practice in the 90’s placing high-level equity professionals with top wall street firms nationwide and ultimately became one of the top search professionals in the brokerage industry. Needless to say, she knows her way around people, business and numbers. What more could we ask for? After spending a month in Nepal, she decided to leave the corporate world and go out on her own where she continued to focus on wall street.

Lisa is the President of Happi, the first THC-infused beverage to launch in the state of Michigan, which she co-founded and leads with her partner Joe Reynolds. Happi’s all-natural sparkling water beverages are made with simple ingredients, and organic fruit, they are vegan and have just 15-25 calories. Designed for the canna-curious woman, Happi combines Lisa’s passion for microdose products and her desire to help more women see cannabis as an alternative to pharmaceuticals and alcohol.

Prior to Happi, Lisa was the Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer at Grassroots Cannabis, a multi-state operator based in Illinois. At Grassroots, Lisa built the marketing function across Grassroots vertical operation in 12 states, developed the product innovation pipeline, and the retail vision, and launched 4 brands in under 2 years. Lisa’s role went beyond marketing as she architected the company’s data & analytics platform and infrastructure, designed the packaging supply chain, and launched numerous new product innovations prior to Grassroots’ sale to Curaleaf in July 2020 for $830MM.

Kyle Sherman is the Founder and CEO of Flowhub, the leading business management & point-of-sale platform for cannabis dispensaries. Founded in Denver, Flowhub simplifies compliance for more than 1,000 legal cannabis retailers across North America, processing more than $3B in sales annually.

Flowhub is a team of people united by its mission to make cannabis accessible to everyone through powerful compliance and retail management software. They're focused on making it as fluid as possible to run, manage and grow any modern dispensary operation.

John Mueller is the CEO of Greenlight. He is a partner at Mid America Capital investment bank and previously served as CEO of Acres Cannabis and Acres Cultivation. John brings extensive experience with state regulations and compliance in all areas of cannabis cultivation and dispensing. 

He has two successful decades of working with federal and state regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as the Food and Drug Administration. John has served in all levels of executive management primarily in the cannabis, food, manufacturing, and construction industries.

Today we are joined by Paul Weaver, The Head of Cannabis at The Boston Beer Company. Paul discusses The Boston Beer Company and their foray into cannabis-infused beverages in Canada. Weaver shares why tea was the perfect vehicle for a THC-infused drink, how the July launch of Teapot has gone, and how the narrative of cannabis stealing occasions from beer has changed.

From the very beginning, Jim Koch wanted to create a company that he would want to work for. The Boston Beer Company worked hard at maintaining that culture through the successes and growth they have enjoyed over the past 30+ years. Today, The Boston Beer Company continues to be a team of enthusiastic, creative, and competitive people who are passionate about raising the bar in everything that they do.  

Miss Grass is Weed for the Times. If you listen really hard, your inner voice is telling you what you need. Time for inspiration or restoration. Time for introspection or play. Time for connection or release. Whatever you need, Miss Grass enhances the Time of your life. Fast Times, Quiet Times, All Times—and every moment in between.

Miss Grass is Sustainably grown and terpene rich. They work closely with their cultivators to choose strains that contain the same terpene and cannabinoid profiles batch-to-batch and state-to-state—so you always know what kind of high to expect. Available in California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Illinois, and New Jersey.

Federally legal, sustainably grown, full-spectrum with high percentages of CBD. Our Miss Grass CBD Hemp + Herb Minis are available in little boxes of five .4g Mini pre-rolls blended with adaptogenic herbs that create heightened effects without the THC. Available nationwide.

Peter Caldini joined Acreage Holdings in December 2020 as Chief Executive Officer after serving for 18 months as the Chief Executive Officer and a director of Bespoke Capital Acquisition Corp., a cannabis-focused Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation.

Mr. Caldini has over 30 years of experience building and restructuring multinational organizations around the world, with a strong emphasis on consumer healthcare and consumer packaged goods. He developed extensive commercial management expertise in heavily regulated industries while at Pfizer Inc., Bayer AG, and Wyeth, LLC. Mr. Caldini was the Regional President of North America for Pfizer Consumer Healthcare from 2017 to 2019, where he drove brand acceleration, marketing strategy, trade execution, global e-commerce, and more for the second-largest OTC consumer healthcare company in the region with over the U.S.

$2.1 billion in net sales. Prior to that role he was the Regional President of EMEA of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare from 2016 to 2017 and led the Northern European cluster from 2015 to 2016. Mr. Caldini was at Bayer from 2009 to 2014, with roles including the head of sub-region Emerging Markets EMEA, the General Manager of Bayer Consumer Care China, and the head of the Nutritionals Strategic Business unit, the global leader in nutritional supplements with brands One-A-Day, Berocca, and Supradyn. From 2002 to 2009 Mr. Caldini was at Wyeth LLC where he was responsible for affiliates across LATAM and AsiaPac and also managed the Centrum brand globally.