Thinking Outside The Bud

Eric Meth, Chief Strategy Officer, Surfside

Eric is a media sales professional & leader specializing in interactive, programmatic, mobile, and ad tech with 25 years of CPG & retail experience. Having worked in both start-up environments and some of the most recognizable media and digital companies in the world, Eric founded Good Harvest Co. in 2018 to transition his expertise and help innovate the way cannabis brands reach their desired consumers, and the way non-endemic brands reach cannabis consumers.

In early 2020, Good Harvest Co. was acquired by Surfside, an end-to-end compliant marketing technology that aggregates 1st party data across all customer touch-points, allowing advertisers the ability to better understand, target and measure how to influence current and future customers.

Our expertise in retailer and shopper marketing augments Surfside's largest cannabis and CBD consumer dataset based on proprietary purchase, location and behavioral data.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmeth/

surfside.io

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Kyle Paradiso, Founder, CEO, Sleepy Bear

Launched in early 2020, Sleepy Bear was born with one idea in mind: to provide a natural nighttime option that customers could trust to not only be effective but most importantly safe.

Sleepy Bear was founded by Kyle Paradiso, a former army ranger, whose service injuries guided him into research involving the use of cannabis and other homeopathic remedies for medical intervention.

After suffering a series of spinal cord injuries in 2016, Kyle was forced into medical retirement which ended his 6-year military career. Kyle was left in an all-too-common position for our nation’s veterans: dealing with lifelong injuries and chronic pain in a government healthcare system with little to no medical options to offer. Before his injuries, Kyle maintained a staunch opposition to cannabis. At a standstill with other alternatives and with the help of friends and family, he began treating himself with cannabis. Kyle soon realized that his world of wellness and treatment would never be the same again.

Having seen the folly of his ways, he vowed to dedicate his life to addressing the stigma that had so indoctrinated him and countless other veterans against the use of cannabis. Kyle pushed toward the academic field and began working at The Citadel Military College of South Carolina as a Veteran liaison. During Kyle’s work with other veterans, he quickly discovered many had eerily similar stories to his own. It was not long before he discovered the depth of struggles that veterans were facing behind closed doors. This led him to pursue a graduate degree in California, looking to expand his knowledge of the systemic issues behind the widespread stigma against veteran cannabis use.

While working on his graduate degree, the 2018 Farm Bill was passed, legalizing hemp products nationwide. With this legalization came a flood of subpar CBD products emerging on the market. It was during this time he realized a glaring lack of scientifically minded and effectively formulated products and saw an opportunity to create a better class of products, hoping to further the narrative for change. It was with this passion and heart that he created Sleepy Bear which soon found its way into stores nationwide and the bedroom of thousands of happy and sleepy customers!.

http://sleepybeargummies.com

https://www.instagram.com/sleepybeargummies/

[email protected]

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James Yi, Founder, CEO, Leaf Trade

James Yi founded Leaf Trade in 2016 after seeing firsthand the inefficiencies in the cannabis supply chain. Since then, he has led company strategy and execution to ensure that Leaf Trade delivers innovation, value, and happiness to its stakeholders. In this nascent industry, James stands apart as someone with both keen industry understanding and proven technology experience, having previously co-founded NextME, a B2B software provider across multiple industries including restaurants and healthcare, and serving as a cannabis industry consultant. He holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies from DePaul University. When he’s not battling inefficiencies in the cannabis supply chain, James enjoys battling dinosaurs and Spiderman with his son, as well as reading, swimming, playing the piano, and camping.

https://twitter.com/leaf_trade

https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaf-trade

https://www.instagram.com/leaftrade

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Max Armstrong, Founding Member, General Manager, Learn Brands

Max Armstrong is a Founding Member and General Manager of Learn Brands, an educational platform built for the cannabis industry. He specializes in product and business development. His goal is to make quality education and cannabis knowledge easily accessible to all industry employees and consumers. He believes that through education, federal recognition and standard business regulation will become a reality for the cannabis industry.

Max has led Learn Brands to become an industry leading technology platform. Learn Brands currently works with hundreds of the largest cannabis brands and retailers across the U.S.. During his time at Learn Brands, Max has launched five new service offerings, leading to over 600% revenue growth in the last three years.

Max is a Colorado native and holds a BA in Communications, Environmental Studies, and a Minor in Oceanic and Atmospheric Studies from the University of Colorado. Outside of the office, his time is spent in the backcountry fly fishing and skiing.

https://www.facebook.com/learnbrands/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/learnbrands/

https://www.instagram.com/learnbrands/

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Matt Melander, President, CFO, LEVIA

Following a decades long career in the securities business, Matt came to LEVIA with a desire to be part of something from the very beginning. In early 2018 he met the Brosnans and Rogers through a former colleague and was quickly wrapped up into the ever changing world of recreational cannabis, and the vision of bringing superior cannabis infused beverages to Massachusetts. Born and raised in Acton Massachusetts, and now living in Marblehead, with his wife Beth Ann, daughter Elorie, identical twin sons Wells and Grey, and golden retriever Basin, Matts connections to the area run deep. He has tremendous pride in building a local business and its ability to support the community. Away from LEVIA, you can find Matt hanging at Higgins Beach in Maine, chasing a golf ball, or working with the Bruyette Family Foundation on a myriad of charitable causes.

http://levia.buzz/

https://www.instagram.com/leviabrands/

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Erik Paulson, Senior Analyst & Lab Manager, Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs

Erik Paulson grew up in San Diego, CA, and received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of California, Riverside. He continued his studies in Riverside to obtain a teaching credential, and then taught high school chemistry in Burbank, CA for five years. His passion for learning brought him back to San Diego to study organometallic chemistry in the Joint Doctoral Program at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. His projects involved development of catalysts for the selective migrations of double bonds in organic molecules. Erik's focus since joining Infinite in 2019 has been the validation and development of potency, residual solvent, and terpenes analyses.

https://infinitecal.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikrichardpaulson/

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Russell Thomas, CEO, LifeTonic

Russell Thomas is the Founder and CEO of LifeTonic, a division of Natural Extraction Systems. Instead of solvents, LifeTonic uses a proprietary Evaporative ExtractionTM process that uses heated air to gently extract CBD and terpenes from hemp. Evaporative Extraction combines extraction, activation, and refinement into a single step to produce a potent, high terpene content, premium full-spectrum extract. Cannabinoids and beneficial terpenes are evaporated in seconds directly from dry plant material to produce extracts with vastly superior terpene content. LifeTonic’s Evaporative ExtractionTM process is protected by 37 granted and pending US and international patents. LifeTonic is the only supplier in the world to offer hemp extract utilizing this

process.

Russell was also instrumental in bringing LifeTonic’s ionized cannabinoid products to market. Cannabinoids are oil based - and water and oil do not mix. While the rest of the industry has pursued methods to mix oil and water, LifeTonic did it completely differently. Ionized CBDTM is not a water solubilized oil suspension, nano-emulsion or liposomal encapsulation. Ionized CBD is a deprotonated CBD salt that dissolves completely in water and water-based liquids and is long-term shelf-stable. Since ionized cannabinoid products are dissolved vs. emulsified, they present a rapid onset that is noticeable as little as 2 - 3 minutes.

In addition to co-founding LifeTonic and Natural Extraction Systems, Russell also invented many of their core technologies. Russell has a unique ability to identify critical gaps in markets and inspire invention in both himself and others. His best inventions and ideas are through passionate collaboration with team members. In total, Russell has been an inventor in over 150 patents and patent applications spanning from cleantech and automotive technologies in his former career, to LifeTonic’s current extraction technologies and drug and supplement technologies.

Russell attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an undergraduate majoring in mechanical engineering. He postponed his education and left MIT in good standing to found his first startup venture.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-thomas-37345b8/

https://lifetonic.com/

https://www.instagram.com/lovelifetonic/

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Bethany Moore, NCIA's Deputy Director of Communications

Bethany Moore is NCIA’s Deputy Director of Communications, responsible for member-facing communications including blogs, newsletters, video projects, and NCIA’s weekly podcast. Bethany has extensive experience in non-profit activism work, including drug policy reform and church-state separation issues. Bethany spent over three years working for the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland until 2006, as well as Radio Free Asia. From 2006-2008, she spent two years as the campaign manager of the First Freedom First campaign at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, while also volunteering with the Maryland chapter of Americans for Safe Access (a medical marijuana patient advocacy group). From 2011-2013, Bethany served as a multimedia project manager for an international finance and investment firm. She has a strong background in project management and strategic planning, as well as communications and public relations. She enjoys writing and self-publishing poetry. Bethany is originally from the Washington, D.C. area and relocated to Denver in January 2014 to work at NCIA.

www.TheCannabisIndustry.Org

Twitter: @BeatnikBetty, @NCIAorg

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Dana Mosman, Co-Founder, Triminator

Dana is the co-founder and CEO of Triminator, the global leader in cannabis and hemp processing equipment. Founded in 2010, Triminator designs and manufactures equipment to streamline the harvesting process for farmers big and small. Dana grew up in Grass Valley, CA, an area with a longstanding history of Cannabis production, and holds a bachelor’s in business from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

https://thetriminator.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/triminator/

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Matt Hawkins, Founder, Managing Partner, Entourage Effect Capital

Matt brings an extensive background in building large alternative investment firms and scaling the companies he invests in. In 2014, Matt had a vision to create the leading private equity firm focused specifically on investing in the legalized cannabis industry. Prior work highlights:

Partner and President, Tucson Capital Partners - Private equity firm focused on multifamily residential and self-storage assets. Between 2008 and 2013, the company completed more than 55 bank-direct acquisitions, deploying over $500MM of capital. He successfully exited in 2013.

Principal & Co-founder of Adjacent Capital - Private equity/specialty lending fund where he oversaw the sourcing, origination, structuring and closing of over 60 transactions in a 3 year period.

He also became a turnaround specialist through his time at Treadstone Partners and San Jacinto Partners. He is known and respected in the cannabis industry as one of the successful early investors.

https://entourageeffectcapital.com/

https://twitter.com/eeffectcapital?lang=en

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-hawkins-11288a2/

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