Adrienne Snow

Western States HEMP

Business Development Manager

Nevada

Adrienne is an entrepreneur who has put her stamp on the Silver State by developing the business framework for a number of cutting-edge industries. Her work has been acknowledged by a myriad of publications including Nevada Business Magazine and The Reno Gazette Journal. She is the creative force behind the WSH brand, instilling a wild west spirit into the framework of the company.

Dani L. Espinda

ACT Resources

Principal

Washington

Dani is a principal with ACT Resources, specializing in tax compliance and planning for individuals, partnerships, corporations. She has extensive experience in medical and recreational cannabis, with clients around the country. She also has experience with hemp and CBD businesses, manufacturing, real estate, professional services and construction. She has presented at numerous tax, legal and cannabis conferences around the country and conducted workshops for clients in the industry.

Flip Croft-Caderao

Greenlit Agency

Principal

Texas

Flip has spent his last decade helping top tier brands such as Bud Light, Caesars Entertainment, Pizza Hut, ESPN, and Amex target customers through digital advertising and creative content. He built Greenlit Agency to bring this experience to the growing cannabis industry. Greenlit is headquartered in Los Angeles and currently works with some of the largest cannabis and CBD brands in the nation.

Naomi Granger

DOPE CEO

Co-Founder | COO

Nevada

A former & Big 4 accounting professional, Naomi has over 12 years of experience in both public accounting and industry accounting. She has managed large global teams responsible for planning, performing and managing audits of financial statements and internal controls over financial reporting. Naomi recognized a void in the cannabis industry and co-founded DOPE CFO in order to bring proper accounting and bookkeeping practices to cannabusinesses. DOPE CFO provides educational tools for accountants and financial professionals to enter into the cannabis industry for untapped professional potential. Naomi was featured in MJ Biz Magazines Jan 2019 issue in their “Women to Watch” section.

Lolita Korneagay, RN

Cansoom

Founder | Medical Cannabis Consultant

California

Lolita is a Registered Nurse with over 15 years of experience. She is the founder of Cansoom, a trusted network of licensed medical professionals that advise consumers about healthy cannabis consumption. Cansoom’s mission is to make cannabis consumption easy and acceptable for everyone. She is an Amazon best selling author and has published three cannabis-related books.

Jana Weltzin

JDW Counsel

Attorney & Principal Owner of JDW Counsel

Alaska

Attorney Jana Weltzin was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. Ms. Weltzin played an invaluable role during the 2015-2019 legislative sessions through her work with the Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Legislation. Ms. Weltzin is also a founding member of the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association and has worked with Alaskan cannabis businesses advocating for and analyzing proposed cannabis related legislation to ensure sustainable success for the industry.

Senator Daylin Leach

Senate of Pennsylvania

PA State Senator (D-17)

Pennsylvania

State Senator Daylin Leach represents parts of Montgomery County and parts of Delaware County. Formerly an attorney and college professor, he is now the Pennsylvania legislature’s leading voice on progressive issues.

Marc Harvill

Medicine Man Technologies

Sr. Consultant/Business Development Manager

Colorado

Marc Harvill holds degrees in Marketing and Spanish from PSU and an MBA from Washburn University. He started his career in retail pharmacy management and later worked for one of the largest privately owned pharmacy technology and robotic companies in the world. He had his start in the cannabis industry back in 2013 when he and his uncle, Brett Roper, assisted Andy Williams (owner of Medicine Man, a 45,000 square foot cultivation with processing and five dispensaries throughout Denver) with launching Medicine Man Technologies (Symbol MDCL), a cannabis consultancy in Denver. Today Marc is the Senior Consultant and Business Development Manager at MMT and is responsible for following emerging markets, managing client relationships, driving and developing business, and assisting shareholders and brokers. For the past six years Marc has been with MMT he, with his company, has assisted clients with state cannabis licensing, design, setup, training, and roll out and deployment in seventeen states including Puerto Rico, Canada, Colombia, South Africa, and Germany. The company has help clients win 26 licenses total in PA, OH, IA, CO, IL, NV, MD, PR, AR and HI.

Stuart Ware

Medicine Man Technologies

Business Development Associate

Colorado

Stuart graduated from Illinois State University with a bachelors degree in Business Marketing. Stuart has been in the industry for 6.5 years having started as a grower for Medicine Man Denver. After 4 years at Medicine Man Stuart transferred to Medicine Man Technologies as a Business Development Associate. In Stuart’s role he manages all in-coming inquiries, coordinates private consults, drives sales and educates aspiring entrepreneurs about getting in the industry.

Katrina Glogowski

Glogowski Law Firm

Attorney

Washington

Katrina is an attorney with over twenty years of experience in regulated markets. She’s also an angel investor with a dozen investments in cannabis and cannabis-related businesses. Katrina also serves on numerous boards for cannabis-related companies. In connection with her investment in Kush.com, she serves as the Compliance Officer at KexTrade. Katrina is a frequent speaker on legal and compliance topics in the cannabis and hemp industries.

Teresa Kearney

Panacea Payroll

Sales Director

Pennsylvania

Teresa Kearney is the Sales Director of Panacea Payroll, located west of Philadelphia,PA. Panacea Payroll is solely focused on providing payroll, HR and timekeeping services to the cannabis and hemp industries in all 50 states.

Carmella Houston

Salal CU

Business Services

Washington

Carmella created and managed Salal CU’s business services division. Carmella initiated niche market opportunities including banking state licensed and regulated cannabis businesses including being one of the first financial institutions in the nation to openly lend to the industry. Successfully worked with state and federal regulators to help educate them on the cannabis industry.

Matt Hawkins

Entourage Effect Capital

Managing Partner

Texas

Matt Hawkins is Managing Partner at Entourage Effect Capital. He has 20+ years of private equity experience and has founded multiple $500+mm alternatives firms, including Tucson Capital Partners, which he successfully exited in 2013, and Adjacent Capital. Matt serves on the board of numerous cannabis companies and is known and respected in the cannabis industry as one of the successful early investors.

Florence Hardy

Fundanna

Chief Operating Officer

Illinois

A graduate of the John Marshall Law School, Florence has been a successful business consultant for over 13 years. She has a Masters in Business Administration with a focus on Entrepreneurship from DePaul University and received a Bachelors in Business Administration from Howard University. She worked for the City of Chicago, DePaul University, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and had her own law practice before becoming the Chief Executive Officer for truCrowd Illinois, the only intrastate equity crowdfunding platform in Illinois and Chief Operating Officer of Fundanna, the only marijuana based crowdfunding platform. Additionally, Florence is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she teaches classes in Business Ethics. Florence has lived and studied in Chicago, Illinois, Washington, DC and Berlin, Germany.

Gary Cohen

Cova Software

CEO

Canada

Gary Cohen is the CEO of Cova Software, an award-winning, seed-to-sale compliant POS and Inventory Management solution designed to streamline cannabis retail. Cohens focus has been driving the company’s overall strategy including its go-to-market plans, vision, and strategic development. Since joining the cannabis industry in 2016 and launching Cova commercially in 4q17, Cohen has led Cova to dominate the enterprise sector for dispensary Point of Sale, while forging client relationships with hundreds of single store retailers across North America. Today, Cohen leads seminars and delivers speeches on topics including compliance, retail technology, sophisticated business operations, cannabis banking laws and more at some of the industry’s largest conferences and events, including the NCIA Seed to Sale Show and MJBizCon. While Cova has become the predominate thought leader for cannabis retailing, Cohen is a leading voice for educating new cannabis entrepreneurs to build their own successful brands.

Courtney N. Moran, LL.M.

Founding Principal

Oregon

Courtney N. Moran, LL.M., founding principal of EARTH Law, LLC is the leading expert on hemp law, championing legal policy for a sustainable Cannabis hemp industry. She litigated the landmark case KaB, LLC v USPIS, MLB 18-39 (2018) establishing precedent for the shipment of hemp through the US Postal Service. Playing a key role in drafting and negotiating the language included in the 2018 Farm Bill federally legalizing hemp, Moran is a sought-after attorney, lobbyist, and speaker.

Troy Alexander-El

Higher Level Healthcare

Physician|Founder

Illinois

Dr. Troy Alexander-EL was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and is a graduate of American University of Antigua Medical School. She trained in Internal Medicine in a combined primary care program at John H. Stroger Hospital and Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Alexander-EL has been practicing for the last several years as a Primary Care Physician for various underserved populations on throughout Chicago and the South Suburbs. Most recently as medical director and primary physician in several nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the Chicagoland area. She established Higher Level Healthcare in response to the lack of opportunities for minorities, specifically people of color, to obtain Medical Cannabis without the stigma created because of the war on drugs.

Shoshanna Silverberg

Pistil + Stigma

Director of Strategy

Nevada

Shoshanna’s background in cannabis began on the civil liberties side, lobbying for groups such as the ACLU and providing analysis for the state on issues such as arrests in schools and prisoner re-entry. She has sat on a Juvenile Review Board employing a Balanced & Restorative Approach to Justice, legislative bodies such as sentencing task forces, commissions & oversight committees charged with implementing criminal justice reform measures. Shoshanna’s direct service experience draws on years spent providing home hospice care and teaching self-care to at-risk youth and professionals in human services. Shoshanna has twice been a guest lecturer for the New Paradigms in Law class offered at the Touro Law Center in Central Islip, NY, has lectured for Pepperdine University’s Department of Public Policy and for Rutgers University School of Law in Camden, NJ. She was a contributing author to Lawyers as Changemakers: The Global Integrative Law Movement, published by the ABA in 2016, she pens a monthly column in the cannabis magazine Elevate NV, and is a regular contributor to Conscious Company Media on the subject of conscious” cannabis from a law.

Keith Olson

Merrco Payments

Executive Vice President

Canada

Keith Olson is Executive Vice President, U.S. Business Development and Sales Lead for Merrco Payments. Keith has operated within the payments ecosystem for over 20 years. Throughout his career Keith has directly participated in nearly every aspect of U.S. acquiring and brings dynamic knowledge and marketplace intimacy. Prior to joining Merrco, Keith was an Executive Director with J.P. Morgan Chase where he built and led sales teams to launch and scale innovative solutions, including ChaseNet and the complimentary Chase Pay product, along with the complete array of traditional merchant services. Additionally, he drove 3rd party Partnerships and the assimilation of JPMC’s WePay acquisition. Previous roles include Director of U.S. Financial Institutions and N.A. eCommece with Moneris, Senior Vice President of Vanitv (now Worldpay), National Relationship Management lead for SCAN/eFunds, General Manager for Harris Bank’s merchant reseller channel and front-line distribution experience as Branch President of a community bank in the city of Chicago, Mid Town Bank, now part of the PNC enterprise.

David Meltzer

Sports 1 Marketing

Co-Founder

California

David Meltzer is the Co-Founder of Sports 1 Marketing, former CEO of the Leigh Steinberg sports agency, a best-selling author, and host of the top Entrepreneur podcast The Playbook. Throughout his career, David has been a leader in multiple industries including sports, tech, and business. Now, David seeks to achieve his lifelong goal of making one billion people happy through the consistent, persistent, pursuit of their potential.

Chris Conrad

theLeafOnline.com

Oaksterdam University Professor

California

Chris Conrad is a well known author, consultant, public speaker, cannabis expert witness, museum curator and internationally respected authority on cannabis, industrial hemp, medical marijuana, cultivation, garden yields, processing, dosages, commercial intent, personal use and cannabis culture. He teaches at Oaksterdam University and the International Pharmacological Academy and has given numerous presentations for continuing legal education (CLE) and continuing medical education (CME) programs. As an expert witness, Chris has given testimony which has helped to shape California medical marijuana law. Click here for important legal information regarding medical cannabis in California and beyond. He is married to prominent human rights activist Mikki Norris. Chris Conrad founded the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp, the Family Council on Drug Awareness and the American Hemp Council in 1989. He is author of Hemp: Lifeline to the Future (1993), Hemp for Health (1997), co-author of Shattered Lives: Portraits From America’s Drug War (1998) and Human Rights and the U.S. Drug War (2001), author of Nostradamus and the Attack on New York (2002), Cannabis Yields and Dosage (2005, revised 2015) and now co-author of The Newbie’s Guide to Cannabis and the Industry (2015). He also designed, edited and did extensive writing for Jack Herer’s book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes (1990). His newest book is The Newbies Guide to Cannabis and the Industry, with Jeremy Daw.

Casey Connell

Contender Gardens

President

Washington

Casey Connell (Contender Gardens LLC) Casey Connell has been growing medical cannabis for almost 2 decades. He has completed 4 degrees at Oaksterdam University, and extensive courses in controlled environment agriculture. Connell has always placed a high premium on product research and development, concentrating on Bio controls, using and testing beneficial insects with cannabis in an effort to be pesticide free. He also has helped other farmers achieve their integrated pest management (IPM) goals. Connell started his own cacti farm in Oregon, before moving to Seattle, where he managed his own collective garden. In 2013, Connell founded Contender Gardens LLC, a regulated I-502 producer/processor in Spokane, Wash. Connell is an executive board member of the cannabis farmer’s council in Washington State and speaks frequently about IPM.

Nic Easley

Multiverse Capital

CEO & Managing Director

Colorado

Nic Easley is the CEO & Managing Director for Multiverse Capital, a cannabis venture firm, and the founder and CEO of 3C Consulting, LLC, the leading global strategic cannabis consulting firm. Over the last 14 years, Nic has worked directly with over 500 cannabis companies in 34 U.S. states, two U.S. territories, 17 countries, and counting. His unique depth of experience in the space has provided investors and operators invaluable insights into running successful cannabis ventures.

Rudy Ellenbogen

Cannabis on Purpose

CEO

Colorado

Originally from Peru, I’ve been the CEO of several companies in real estate construction and cannabis for the past 15 years, the latest Verde Natural which exploded from a small Medical dispensary to becoming the largest Organic Cultivator in Colorado in under 3 years. Verde’s accelerated success was acknowledged for several awards including The Grow Off (flower), Rooster’s THC Classic (concentrates) and Westword (dispensary) – but the real secret to it’s success, beyond strategy and operations, was the unified relationship between executives, managers and employees creating a win-win culture. Most companies, especially ones driven by profit, don’t have a high standard for what’s important around their company culture, employees, product, and the consumer. I believe that the future of the cannabis industry is at stake and I’m on a mission to make sure that it doesn’t become corrupt by corporate greed like the health or food industry. YOUR success as a cannabis company on purpose is the only way to ensure that cannabis does the good it can do for the world. I put relationships first, so If you resonate with this, feel free to reach out and I would love to hear more about you and share more of me.

Pate Gustafson

JohnsByrne Company

Partner|Executive Vice President

Illinois

Pate Gustafson serves as the Executive Vice President at JohnsByrne. JohnsByrne Company, a custom packaging and print solutions provider, has been a leader in the print and packaging industry since 1959 and partners with major brands in health & beauty, food and beverage, and consumer products. With a culture built around innovation, quality, design and speed, their offerings span value added folding cartons, specialty packaging and high impact direct mail.

Sundarajan Mutialu

AZENTIVE

Chief Technology Officer|Co-CEO

California

Sundarajan Mutialu (aka SUN) is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-CEO of AZENTIVE, a wellness and sustainability company supporting the profitable delivery of the purest, organic cannabis. AZENTIVE’s flagship plasma lighting technology, The Sun On- Demand, produces true sunlight and empowers cultivation of sungrown quality organic cannabis in any controlled environment. Sundarajan specializes in advanced materials, plasma physics, materials processing, and surface modification. He is passionate about producing the highest quality cannabis to serve the most patients possible. AZENTIVE’s approach to achieving this is to honor the plant first, and then to apply biomimicry to wrap sustainable technology solutions into the cultivation of the plant.

Thomas Carnevale

Umbrella Technologies

COO

Illinois

Thomas Carnevale is an internationally recognized security entrepreneur, author, and active speaker. He currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Umbrella Technologies a security consulting company dedicated to physical security technologies being enterprise video surveillance, access control, mass notifications, and business intelligence. With a background in the telecommunications industry, Thomas took his technical insights into the security industry and began his first entrepreneurial start-up JCS Digital Security which premiere focus was to integrate the best in breed surveillance technologies for all of their commercial and governmental clients. Next and for over 14 years he founded a technology company that invented the Industries 1st single-sensor open-platform immersive panoramic camera technology which was used to secure fortune 500 companies, major cities, and some of the largest mass transit agencies in the world. Honored by the Security Industry Association, ASIS & Multiple Security Publications over the years for his value in security innovation- Thomas has taken his experience in training system integration firms direct to the End-User with Umbrella Technologies.

Tyler Stratford

Canna Advisors

Retail Operations Expert

Colorado

Tyler’s knowledge of the medical and recreational cannabis industry started in 2011 after serving four years in the U.S. Army as an Infantry SGT in The Old Guard. He began by working in his family’s dispensary and cultivation operation — one of the first operations in Colorado — and has managed cultivation and served as Dispensary Director. Tyler later expanded his knowledge and experience through technical and operational consulting at a leading industry software company. Tyler has gained experience in the field, working in nearly every cannabis market in the U.S. and internationally. He has trained and started up over 300 cannabis businesses and opened the very first dispensaries in 6 states. Tyler serves on the NCIA’s newly-formed Retail Committee, which focuses on best practices for operating a retail storefront in the cannabis industry. He enjoys educating audiences at high-profile cannabis events and conferences across the country.

Todd Sullivan

Cannapreneur Partners

Co-CEO

Massachusetts

A serial entrepreneur, Todd has been involved in entrepreneurial businesses either as an investor, advisor or founder/employee since he was 18. Todd currently owns ValuePlays and is former General Partner in Rand Strategic Partners a long/short hedge fund. ValuePlays, launched in 2007, features Todd’s investment ideas that he updates readers on regularly. He has been featured in a wide range of media including Wall St. Journal, New York Times, CNN Money, Business Week, Crain’s NY, Kiplingers.

Mike Lewis

Third Wave Farms

Co-Founder and Director of Agriculture

California

In 2009, Mike interned on an organic farm in Gravel Switch, Kentucky and founded Growing Warriors; the first veteran-oriented food security project with a mission to equip, asset and train military veterans in production agriculture to feed themselves, their families, and their communities. In 2014, Lewis began farming hemp as part of the Kentucky Pilot Program. With the support of Fibershed and Patagonia, Lewis became the first federally permitted hemp farmer in the U.S. since prohibition. He has won numerous awards for his work in agriculture and farming, the 2013 and 2014 Local Food Hero Award, the 2015 Wendell Berry New Agrarian, Kentucky Colonel Award, the 2014 Yahoo People That Made the World a Better Place award, and the GRIST 50 award. In 2017, Lewis co-founded Third Wave Farms; an industrial hemp company-based Livingston, Kentucky. He also serves as Board Director of Growing Warriors, serves as Board Member of the Hemp Industries Association (HIA), is a former member of the KY Hemp Commission, where he was instrumental in crafting Kentucky and Federal legislation surrounding the newly passed 2019 Farm Bill.

Bob Musinski

CBD Marketing

SVP, Public Relations, Social Media and Content Marketing

Illinois

Bob has 20+ years’ experience in all phases of public relations, including managing social media and content marketing engagements. At CBD Marketing, he works with national and global clients in manufacturing, financial services, education and food ingredients that are aligning with the cannabis business space. Prior to CBD Marketing, he worked at KSA Public Relations and is also expert in government relations, working to communicate with local and state lawmakers on behalf of various businesses and institutions. Bob has also worked at large news organizations, is an award-winning journalist and a speaker at national conferences.

Holly Anderson

Medical Cannabis Recipes

Senior Administrator

Illinois

Holly Anderson is a medical cannabis patient in Illinois and Senior Administrator for Medical Cannabis Recipes. After an undiagnosed Epilepsy became worse and a grand mal seizure resulted in a skull fracture/TBI, Holly dealt with many different things after the TBI. The worst being loss of senses and sensitivity to light, to the point where she could rarely go outside. Doctors couldn’t do much and told her to be happy about what had improved, but she was miserable. There seemed to be nothing that helped.

After almost 3 years of unsuccessful medical treatment, she decided to try medical cannabis and set out over the next year to learn everything about cannabis that she could to help herself. The Medical Cannabis Recipes Group was instrumental in this. She was soon asked to be a moderator for Medical Cannabis Recipes to share what she has learned to help others learn how to medicate with various cannabis products as well.

With her brain improving she’s able to work with individual patients to figure out the best and at times more cost-effective medical routine, and learning various consumption methods, can help them. She brings valuable math and science skills to the group as well.

Medical Cannabis Recipes in addition to sharing relevant educational information, a plethora of recipes and ideas for various methods of intake and tips and tricks for preparing your cannabis medications, an exclusive discount program with various manufacturers and retailers have also been developed, saving patients hundreds of dollars on needed equipment and devices. MCR provides a safe space for people to ask for and receive the help that a new medical cannabis patient desperately needs while facilitating patient gatherings for hands-on learning and emotional support. The Medical Cannabis Recipes Group is now open to medical cannabis patients and their caregivers from all over the world!

Aaron Lachant

MMLG

CEO

California

Aaron Lachant has been at the forefront of the cannabis industry since 2009. He is the CEO of the consultancy MMLG, LLC and a partner in the health care law firm Nelson Hardiman, LLP. He has obtained for his clients over 120 licenses, permits, and authorizations to engage in cannabis activity. He has worked on projects in California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, Missouri, and other states. Aaron recently worked on a competitive licensing project in which MMLG’s client scored 3rd out of 128 dispensary applicants.

Aaron’s work has grown with the maturing of the industry. He has worked on many sophisticated corporate transactions, advising clients on M&A deals, partnership disputes, and litigation involving regulatory violations. Aaron’s practice is devoted to keeping marijuana businesses open and consults with regulators in various jurisdictions to keep laws favorable. In 2016, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors appointed him to serve on the county working group for cannabis regulations. In 2018, he drafted Measure G which legalized adult use cannabis retailers in Malibu.

Aaron was listed as one of the California Daily Journal’s Top 40 under 40 lawyers for his in-depth knowledge and expertise of the ever-changing cannabis industry. He was also recognized by Super Lawyers Magazine as a 2018 and 2019 Southern California Rising Star.

Lelehnia DuBois

Lelehnia DuBois

Founder

California

Lelehnia Dubois grew up in the Emerald Triangle. By the end of 2019, she had developed her own grow systems, lead her community into legalization, sponsored a cannabis education spot that aired on national networks, developed her own wellness line, co-developed a 4-permit manufacturing project in Humboldt County, and launched a magazine in the Emerald Triangle. This year Lelehnia was listed as one of Green Market Reports top 100+ Women In Weed for 2020.

Thomas Howard

Collateral Base, the commercial division of HRF

Cannabis Industry Lawyer

Illinois

Thomas E. Howard is a tech savvy attorney that concentrates his practice in cannabis, commercial banking, bankruptcy, and business litigation, loan workouts, and real estate. He is admitted to the Illinois State Bar Association, the State Bar of Wisconsin, the United States District Court for all Illinois districts, the United State Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and the United State District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He is a member of the ISBA’s Standing Committee on Immigration Law, and Commercial Collections, Banking and Bankruptcy. He earned his B.A. degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and his J.D. degree from Marquette University Law School. After completing law school he earned his Series 766 securities licenses and briefly worked as a stockbroker before using his law degree to work through the mortgage foreclosure crisis from the market crash of 2008. A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Howard has helped found a charity, Build Peoria, and has a digital consulting company, Stumari, LLC, that helps lawyers with SEO and digital marketing strategies to get more client leads.

Liz Brohan

CBD Marketing

CEO and President

Senior Administrator

Illinois

Liz has a wealth of branding, positioning, and messaging strategy development expertise across a broad range of product categories and segments. At CBD Marketing, she has spearheaded brand revitalization, acquisition and retention efforts for leading national and global companies that are now aligning with cannabis markets. Her interest in social monitoring and social listening underlines the importance of the marketing insights it can provide to brands and companies. Liz speaks nationally on marketing topics, including on integrated digital programs that help attract new customers, maximize lifetime value, and increase sales, retention and loyalty. Prior to joining CBD, Liz served as Executive Vice President for Columbian Advertising, now FCB.

Jay Matos

Jay Matos Consulting

Founder

Nevada

Jay Matos is one of the longest and strongest supporters of the Nevada cannabis industry; he is a well-known cannabis consultant with over 15 prestigious clients, he is a founding member of the Clark County Green Ribbon Advisory Panel and he helped write, gain support for and pass SB374 with Senator Tick Segerblom, bringing legalized medical marijuana to the patients of Nevada who needed it.

Jeff Lowenfels

Teaming with Jeff Lowenfels

Lord of the Roots | Best selling Author | Attorney

Alaska

Jeff Lowenfels is one of the most humorous and entertaining lecturers on the organic gardening circuit. He is a reformed lawyer and author of Timber Press’ award winning and best selling books, Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to The Soil Food Web and Teaming With Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition.  His third book in the soils trilogy, Teaming With Fungi, The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae, was published in January 2016 and instantly became a best seller.  All three of Lowenfels’ books have become bibles for organic growers everywhere. This includes cannabis growers who recognize Lowenfels’ system as the best way to grow without chemicals which means they can pass state testing requirements. His talks at cannabis events are not to be missed. Jeff’s 4th book is called DIY Autoflowering Cannabis, A New Way to Grow will be published by New Society Publishers and is available October 22. Lowenfels also pens the longest running garden column in North America, having never missed a week in over 40 years. The combination of garden writing and law earned him the moniker of America’s Dirtiest Lawyer. The trilogy makes his  Lord of The Roots. Jeff is also a highly respected and popular, national, garden writer. He is the former President of the Garden Writers of America, a GWA Fellow and in 2005 was inducted into the GWA Hall of Fame, the highest honor a garden writer can achieve. Jeff Lowenfels has become a leader in the organic gardening/sustainability movement as a result of his best selling books. His talks have converted tens of thousands of gardeners at venues throughout North and South America. Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to The Soil Food Web was reviewed as the most important new gardening book in 25 years and maybe even ever. It is now out in a Revised Edition, and has been translated into 11 languages.  Jeff grew up as an indentured servant on his father’s hobby farm in Scarsdale, New York. There he was forced to plant, weed, mow and pick fruits, flowers and vegetables on an 8 acre gentlemen’s farm replete with acres-wide vegetable gardens, a Versailles-style formal flower garden, a 100 tree fruit orchard and countless landscape shrubs, lawns and decorative beds. He escaped to Harvard College where he majored in Geology and the Harvard. One day back in the early 70’s while attending law school, he was held up and shot. As a result, he ran as far away as he could without a passport and ended up in Anchorage, Alaska. There, he has been able to translate his work-filled childhood into a meaningful and enjoyable hobby and avocation. Jeff hosted Alaska public television’s most popular show, Alaska Gardens with Jeff Lowenfels. The show was so popular, it ran four times a week and aired even in Barrow, way above the Arctic Circle. He also hosted a popular, weekly, garden radio show until his travel schedule lecturing around the world caught up with him. Most important, Jeff is the founder of a now national program that started as Plant a Row for Bean the soup kitchen in Anchorage, and is now Plant A Row for The Hungry. The program is active all 50 states and Canada and has resulted in  millions pounds of garden produce being donated to feed the hungry every year.

Daniel Shapiro

Shapiro & Associates Law

Founder

Illinois

The firm’s founder, Dan Shapiro, has 30 years of experience in the areas of land use, zoning, governmental relations, municipal law, and civil litigation. He has represented a wide variety of clients including: developers, businesses as well as governmental entities and closely advises his clients on complex matters including, securing zoning entitlements before plan commissions, zoning boards, village, towns and critics. In litigation matters, Mr. Shapiro has also represented his clients at all judicial levels in Illinois and Federal courts Mr. Shapiro has been a frequent lecturer on issues such as of land use, public/private partnerships, zoning, and local government relations. He is currently a Village Trustee for the Village of Deerfield, Illinois and has served as an adjunct professor at Chicago Kent College of Law where he taught land use to 2nd and 3rd year law students.

Kim Kiefer

Ascend Wellness Holdings

Chief Retail Officer

New York

Kim is an innovative, results-focused national strategic retail executive with an extensive record of success driving operational excellence to grow organizational footprint and transform underachieving regions into the nations’ top producers. Recognized for creating and implementing aggressive, comprehensive business and sales plans and a collaborative, hands-on approach to leadership, Kim motivates and inspires highly dedicated, accountable teams who consistently over deliver short- and long-term goals. Led growth of Converse stores from 62 to 117, including 55 new openings and 4 new districts. Turned around Bath & Body Works’ bottom ranked region to #1 in the nation within a year.