Megan Henderson is the Director of Marketing and Business Development for HelloMD in Canada. Previously Megan helped to create and launch TheGrowthOp.com, Postmedia’s editorial brand on cannabis and acted as the Executive Producer for the brand. Megan lead TheGrowthOp’s editorial strategy as well as contributing content. In addition to her sales, marketing and content experience Megan worked to develop the cannabis advertising guidelines used at Postmedia and acted as the main compliance lead for all cannabis advertising. With over a decade of experience in marketing, advertising and custom content, Megan brings this experience as well as her cannabis promotions skill set into her new role with HelloMD. Megan works with HelloMD’s Canadian partners such as Shoppers Drug Mart, TGOD and Terracend.
Dr. Hatcher received her MD in 1982 from Memorial University of Newfoundland and was certified with the College of Family Physicians of Canada in 1984 and awarded a fellowship in 2001. She is an Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario.
In 1998, she received the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s Mental Health Awareness Award. In 2016 she became a Diplomate of the Canadian Academy of Pain Management.
She was an expert panel member for the 2017 Canadian Opioid Guideline update. She is involved in designing a medical cannabis public education program for McMaster University Pain Clinic. She is on the Editorial Board of the journal “Using Medical Cannabis” and writes regularly for this journal. She is also assisting with the DataCann cannabis research network at McMaster University and is involved in clinical research with cannabis.
She regularly lectures to physicians and the public on Medical Cannabis and Chronic Pain nationally and internationally. She has given over 200 lectures.
Blaine Favel is the founder and CEO of Kanata Earth; an indigenous owned cannabis company focused on genetics, nursery growing and organic cultivation. Blaine hails from the Poundmaker Cree Nation, where he served as Chief and Grand Chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. Blaine is credited with starting the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority and the First Nations Bank, two national firsts of Indigenous People entering new industries. He was more recently CEO and founder of One Earth Farms and One Earth Oil and Gas, and served as Chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan until 2016. Blaine has a law degree from Queens and a MBA from Harvard Business School and has over 25 years experience in leadership in politics, business and academia.
Loretta Eldridge is the Director of Marketing at Ample Organics, a leader in cannabis tracking and reporting technology that powers 70% of Canadian licensed producers. Loretta brings extensive marketing experience from a decade-long career in book publishing, managing marketing teams in the development and implementation of national campaigns. She holds certificates in Strategic Marketing from Ryerson University, Creative Book Publishing from Humber College, and is a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) graduate from Trent University with a Double Major in English and Cultural Studies.
Dr. Gerdeman is a neuroscientist and educator with expertise in the physiological actions of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system (ECS). His Ph.D. dissertation in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt University was one of the first studies to discover endocannabinoids acting as “retrograde messengers” that regulate synaptic plasticity in the brain, findings that have become a foundation to modern understanding of the ECS and the neuroprotective actions of cannabis. Greg’s research has been widely cited in the scientific literature, and highlighted in such diverse publications as Science, National Geographic,Men’s Health, and The New York Times. He has been a member of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) since 1999, and has received research funding through grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). His scholarly research has spanned topics ranging from synaptic physiology of the ECS; behavioral pharmacology of CB1 receptors and their regulation of habitual memories; the physiological activation of ECS signaling in exercise; and the evolutionary & comparative biology of cannabinoid receptors through studies on invertebrate marine chordates.
Through deep study of the science of cannabis Dr. Gerdeman became a vocal advocate for reclaiming this plant as a safe and effective natural remedy. Over the last 10 years, he has progressively studied the chemical ecology and genetics of cannabis, and the extraction of cannabis biomolecules to create medicinal formulations. In 2017 he resigned a tenured faculty position as professor of biology at Eckerd College (St Petersburg, FL) to become Chief Scientific Officer for 3 Boys Farm: a rainwater harvesting, solar powered, low carbon footprint, USDA certified organic produce farm that is newly licensed to cultivate cannabis in the state of Florida.
Danielle specializes in strategic management has provided advice to corporations on procurement, marketing, pricing, IT and supply chain management. Prior to Auxly, Danielle played a key role on the Shoppers Drug Mart cannabis strategy team where she was responsible for ACMPR licensing and cannabis procurement initiatives for the enterprise. Danielle also has extensive experience launching new healthcare services to both patients and caregivers and gained pharmaceutical marketing experience from her time at GlaxoSmithKline where she worked on several blockbuster drugs in the respiratory portfolio.
Danielle has been invited as a guest lecturer to several Universities and Colleges including Ryerson, Western and Fanshaw, covering topics related to cannabis and healthcare strategy.
Bringing experience from the pharmaceutical industry where she held several positions within Quality Assurance, Compliance and Operations, Zara brings technical insight on manufacturing and quality management. Zara specializes in maintaining and developing robust quality systems to ensure operational compliance with regulatory requirements. Zara has developed Quality Management Systems and SOPs implemented by Licenced Producers all over Canada and approved by Health Canada. Zara has been a pivotal component in supporting applicants at all stages of review with the OMC and OCS for Licensed Producer and Dealer’s Licence applications. She has presented multiple late-stage LP sites to Health Canada with all successfully receiving Licence to Cultivate. Zara is also well versed in current and future regulations and supporting clients in preparing for new emerging markets through GMP Certification.
Nick Pateras is Vice President of Growth & International Strategy at Lift & Co., leading the company’s Events and Retail Solutions teams. Lift & Co. is Canada’s leading cannabis media and technology platform, with a mission to empower better cannabis decisions by bridging the informational gap between buyers and sellers.
Prior to joining Lift & Co., Nick spent several years in the pharmaceutical sector with Johnson & Johnson Inc., where he led businesses across OTC and Health & Beauty. His background in healthcare led him to make the professional move into cannabis, having long advocated for recognition of its many medical applications.
Nick is a regular speaker at cannabis conferences across Canada as well as in Europe, typically on the topics of marketing and branding, as well as global industry trends. He holds two degrees, in Business and Philosophy, from Queen’s University, Canada.
Kevin is the Chief Scientific Officer and Founder of Medicinal Genomics Corporation and has pioneered the genomics of cannabis and hemp to build a stronger scientific environment (Kannapedia.net) for the study of cannabis based therapeutics and blockchain technologies for tracking and verifying cannabis genetics.
Kevin has spent his career researching and developing various DNA sequencing technologies in both the research and clinical industries and has had a parallel interest in driving the tools used for personalized medicine into the world of cannabis medicine. Kevin believes the intersection of personalized medicine, genomics, blockchains and cannabis is one of the most exciting growth opportunities in our lifetime.
Medicinal Genomics made world-wide news in 2011 when it publically released the first genome sequence for Cannabis Sativa L. As a result of this work, Medicinal Genomics (MGC) launched a suite of qPCR tools for the detection of microbial contamination on Cannabis. In 2015, MGC was the largest provider of microbiological testing equipment in the cannabis space and has been selected to present on its genome sequencing, cannabis sex determination and microbiome work at ICRS 2014 and 2015.
Previously, Kevin was the CSO of Courtagen Life Sciences, Inc., and held the position of Vice President and Director of R&D of Life Technologies where he managed the development of Life Technologies next generation SOLiD sequencing technology. Integral to the SOLiD R&D process, Kevin oversaw over
100 research collaborations exploring the new biological frontiers with next generation sequencing and saw particular excitement and traction in human tumor sequencing. Kevin initiated an R&D project to investigate chemFET semiconductor based DNA sequencing and spearheaded a process to acquire the DNA sequencing company Ion Torrent for $350M. These collaborations resulted in hundreds of publications and 7 Journal covers from Science Translational Medicine to Nature.
Kevin was the President and CSO of Agencourt Personal Genomics, a startup company he co-founded in 2005 to invent revolutionary sequencing technologies that dropped the cost of sequencing a human genome from $300M to $3,000; a 100,000-fold improvement in sequencing speed and cost in a few years. Kevin oversaw the growth and research of APG until it was sold it to Applied BioSystems. In 2000, Kevin Co-Founded Agencourt Biosciences Corporation and acted as the CSO until 2005 where it was acquired by Beckman Coulter. From 1996 to 2000 Kevin managed the Research and Development for the Human Genome Project at Whitehead Institute/MIT resulting in several patents for nucleic acid purification.
Kevin holds a B.S. in Biology from Emory University with a focus on cloning and expressing Norepinephrine Transporters.
Heather Weber, CPA, CGA, is the leader of MNP’s Indirect Tax Group. Since 2001, Heather has specialized in assisting her clients with all their indirect taxation needs, including GST, PST, excise taxes, property taxes and more. Working closely with her team, Heather serves business owners, Aboriginals and Hutterites, as well as clients in the health care, winery, construction and public company sectors.
Heather’s in-depth understanding of indirect tax issues helps her
develop customized tax minimization strategies for her clients. She helps organizations capture the compliance information they need to claim all the benefits they are entitled to. Heather also has extensive experience in real property and cross-border transactions.
As a former auditor for the Canada Revenue Agency, Heather has extensive experience dealing with both the federal and provincial governments and she brings that insight to her clients’ dealings with government authorities at the audit and appeal stage.
Before earning her Certified General Accountant (CGA) designation in 1995, Heather received her Bachelor of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University in 1991. She is also a member of both the Kelowna Tax Discussion Group and the Vancouver Commodity Tax Discussion Group.
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