CannaOne The Summer Show 2027

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.

Ashley entered the regulated cannabis market in late 2013 after holding positions in finance, education, logistics and marketing. Shortly thereafter, Ashley joined one of the largest vertically integrated cannabis businesses in Colorado as the Head of Marketing, Operations and Sales. Ashley recognized that Colorado was quickly becoming the model for other States and founded Point7 in 2015 to offer support services to new operators facing the daunting learning curve she had experienced just two years prior. Since then, Point7 has rapidly expanded with offices in Ohio, Colorado, California and soon Massachusetts. The team has supported Clients in 70+ markets worldwide, offering a breadth of services. Ashley is also the author of Breaking the Grass Ceiling: Women, Weed and Business, published in 2017 and released at SXSW (2017). She earned her B.S. in Business Administration from Northeastern University, with concentrations in marketing and sociology and her Master of Arts degree.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 7 & 66 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.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Thomas Shaw comes from a background in retail and technology sales. Shaw joined springbig’s Boca Raton team in 2017 as one of their first 7 employees. During his time as Account Executive, Shaw grew springbig’s client base from 30 retailers to over 200 in just one year, while growing and shaping the entire customer-facing team. Currently, Shaw manages the Sales Development team as well as managing strategic partnerships with other cannabis companies. In his role, Shaw is responsible for overseeing springbig’s sales growth, as sell as maintaining and growing partnerships.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sarah Leamon is a criminal defence lawyer and founder of Sarah Leamon Law Group in Vancouver, B.C. Sarah specializes in impaired driving and cannabis law. In 2017, Sarah was invited to appear before the House of Commons in Ottawa to discuss the legal implications of changes to Canadas Criminal Code impaired driving laws. She has been sought out by the House of Commons and the Senate for her legal insight on multiple occasions since then. Sarah regularly write for the Georgia Straight, the Huffington Post, the Daily Hive, the Her(b) Life and the Cannabis Life Network. She is also involved in numerous non-profit organizations, including PACE Society, where she acts as Board Chair, The Coven Club and The Women’s Association of Criminal Lawyers, which she founded in 2018. Sarah was nominated as one of the 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer Magazine in both 2018 and 2019 and won Business in Vancouver’s 2018 Forty Under 40 Award.

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.

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, policy and business perspective.

Troy Alexander-EL, MD 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 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”.