Alex Cooley is the co-founder of the first brand in the first legal adult use cannabis state, Solstice. A cannabis production/processing company based in Seattle has led to many firsts and many opportunities to shape the industry locally and globally. Through his diligent efforts, Solstice created the first ever fully permitted cannabis production facility in Washington State and has developed multiple sites since then. From inception, Solstice’s goal has been to cultivate the highest quality, most beneficial varieties, including the award winning, CBD-rich Sour Tsunami #3. All done through industry leading best practices.
Acting locally, he has helped to shape multiple City of Seattle ordinances and author the “collective garden model” of safe, legal access for medical cannabis patients. Standing on these successes Alex and Solstice have been very active at the state level and were key resources to the WA Liquor and Cannabis Board to develop the rules for the implementation of I-502, Washington’s cannabis legalization. In addition to working with multiple state agencies Alex has worked with the Washington State Legislature to craft better laws for patients and adult use consumers.
In recent years Alex has been crisscrossing our country speaking at industry events helping to guide the industry in a positive direction, being an expert witness for cultivation trials and works with the US Congress to reform federal policy. Recently Alex has worked to shape international policy at the UN General Assembly Special Session on Global Drug Policy. In addition to this he has worked to create more comprehensive code and rules that meet producers where they are; advising many governmental departments from the Seattle DPD to the Washington State Building Code Council.
Throughout all of this action Alex has never lost touch with his passion for the plant and recently celebrated 12 years of cultivating the plant. He also maintains his day job at Solstice, acting as the Vice President helping to manage the day-to-day operations, craft the long-term vision and maintain the same mission that the company was founded on 7 years ago.
Alex joined MedReleaf in 2014 which was the beginning of his career in the medical cannabis industry. Alex was present at the outset of the Canadian Medical Cannabis Industry Association (CMCIA) and during his subsequent tenure he served as committee chair and held the position of interim Executive Director.
He has spoken to thousands of patients with various conditions and ailments such as PTSD and chronic pain. Alex has worked with Veterans Affairs Canada on the coverage of cannabis and vaporizers and is a proponent of methods of ingestion other then smoking. He left MedReleaf at start of 2017 and has since focused on cannabis education, as well as taking his experience and expertise around the world to help accelerate emerging cannabis markets.
Kevin O’Leary was born to a middle class family in 1954. The combination of Kevin’s mother’s family heritage as merchants and his father’s Irish charisma truly meant that O’Leary was born for business. Kevin learned most of his business intuition from his mother. She taught him key business and financial insights from an early age. These became Kevin’s core philosophies, and the pillars upon which he would one day build his empire.
The Turning Point
Kevin’s approach to business went through major changes as a teenager. During his second day on the job at a local ice cream shop, his boss came into the front of the store where Kevin was scooping ice cream. She looked at Kevin and asked him to perform a task that he wasn’t expecting. What happened next had a profound effect on Kevin – one that stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Foundations of an Empire
As a university student, Kevin’s innate business sense led him along several different paths – including some very unusual, very entrepreneurial ways of making a profit.
Not long after he finished his MBA, Kevin had a meeting that changed his life forever. He met a man who had a strange idea for a software product – an idea with huge, high-profit potential that Kevin immediately recognized.
After years of ups, downs, sacrifices, challenges, and lessons learned — not to mention a critical phone call that nearly cost him everything — the opportunity that Kevin saw eventually turned into a computer software giant that was acquired for more than $4 billion dollars.
Investor Extraordinaire
After his extraordinary success at the software company he founded – and a difficult period of obstacles and legal disputes – Kevin eventually found himself on television, quickly becoming a sought-after host and personality on a range of shows – including Discovery’s Project Earth, CBC’s Dragons’ Den, and ABC’s Shark Tank.
Kevin has since launched O’Leary Funds, an investment fund company; O’Leary Fine Wines; and a best-selling book series on financial literacy.
In 2014, Kevin founded O’Leary Financial Group – a group of brands and services that share Kevin’s guiding principles of honesty, directness, convenience, and above all, great value.
Benoît P. Séguin is the Associate Director of Operations within the Office of Medical Cannabis at Health Canada. His scientific experience within the government over the last 20 years has allowed him to contribute to multiple regulatory projects with national implications. Benoit joined the cannabis for medical purposes portfolio in 2013. His experience on this file covers various aspects from licensing to compliance and enforcement.
“Deepak Anand is a recognized thought leader and subject-matter expert who has experience with senior government officials, policymakers, investors and global cannabis producers.
He is the principal at ASDA Consultancy Services in Surrey, British Columbia.
Anand was executive director for the Canadian National Medical Marijuana Association and was the founder and CEO of various Canadian and international cannabis processing, manufacturing and distribution businesses.
He also has served on the boards of various cannabis companies and pharmaceutical associations across Canada, the United States and Europe.
Anand earned an MBA from Vancouver Island University and serves on boards for not-for-profit, advocacy and patient-driven organizations.”
Av Singh is one of the leading proponents of regenerative organic cannabis production being engaged in cannabis projects across six continents. Dr. Singh has authored over 200 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, and extension articles and has been an invited speaker to over 600 workshops, conferences, symposia as well as guest-lecturing at over 30 universities in Canada, the US, the UK, and India. Av has had the privilege of visiting over 2500 farms across five continents which has shaped his extension of holistic, system-based design solutions. Emphasizing a union of traditional knowledge with science, Av works with growers to cultivate an appreciation of plant:soil interrelationships.
Currently, Av is the Executive Director of the Scotian Cannabis Alliance; the Chief Scientific Officer at Adonis Living Soils; Scientific Advisory Chair with Cannaray (UK) and also serves as a Cultivation Advisor within the cannabis industry with Flemming & Singh Cannabis and Lav & Kush Consulting having clients in over 20 countries. Av also works as the Chief Science Officer at BoomBrains; Chief Agricultural Scientist with Green Gorilla (US); the Chief Agronomist at BetraLif, the Chief Soil Scientist at CaliCann (Colombia); and the Cultivation Advisor at WildLeaf (Zimbabwe). Av has had his hand in developing several award-winning (High Times Stash Award) living soil recipes for container and living soil bed systems worldwide.
Lastly, Av is a long-time member of the Canadian Organic Growers and the National Farmers’ Union, as well as the Vice-President of Régénération Canada. Av is also a faculty member at Earth University (www.navdanya.org) in India where he delivers courses on agroecology and organic farming and has recently completed delivering a course on cannabis cultivation at the Nova Scotia Community College. Most importantly, Av and his wife, Ren Shepard have two amazing daughters (and grand-daughter, Mira), who all are kind enough to tolerate his obsessions with Bob Dylan, whisk(e)y, and rugby union.
Av is proud and privileged to be a settler in Mi’kma’ki, the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaw people, and constantly seeks to better understand his roles and responsibilities in adhering to the Peace and Friendship Treaties signed by the respective governments.
In dealing with a wide variety of labour and employment issues, Fiona takes great care in understanding her clients’ businesses and delivering advice that is tailored to meeting their specific needs. She cares deeply about addressing her clients’ concerns and resolving their issues.
Fiona’s practice focuses on advising clients with respect to compliance with employment standards, human rights, pay equity and occupational health and safety requirements and minimizing liabilities with respect to terminations. Fiona also regularly drafts, negotiates and advises on the enforcement of contractual and commercial arrangements with employees, including employment and consulting agreements, non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, equity and non-equity based compensation arrangements and bonus plans, the assignment of intellectual property rights and separation packages. In addition, Fiona represents clients in litigation arising out of the employment relationship, including wrongful and constructive dismissal litigation and matters before the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal and the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
Fiona’s commercial employment law practice involves assisting the firm’s corporate clients with all labour and employment aspects of corporate transactions, restructurings and mergers and acquisitions, including employment-related diligence, successor employer issues and preparing related employment and consulting agreements. Fiona represents employers in the public, private, non-profit and charitable sectors across a range of industries and contexts, including technology, manufacturing, automotive, health and wellness, insurance, transportation, retail and marketing, among others.
Fiona enjoys working with clients to develop workable business solutions.
Jesse Stanley is the CEO of Stanley Brothers, a leading social enterprise company that creates life-changing, plant-based health and wellness solutions. Jesse and his brothers are pioneers in non-psychoactive cannabis industry and achieved international recognition for developing proprietary hemp genetics with low Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and high Cannabidiol (CBD) content, which became known as Charlotte’s Web.
Charlotte’s Web is named after a little girl, Charlotte Figi, who was suffering from 300 gran mal seizures per week from a treatment resistant form of epilepsy. Since taking the brothers’ hemp extract, Charlotte has been 99.9% seizure free and thriving in school. Charlotte’s Web has various health applications and contains a full spectrum of plant compounds that support life-essential biological processes and the endocannabinoid system.
To further Jesse’s and his brothers’ mission to improve the quality for others, CW Hemp supports the non-profit, Realm of Caring, to advance cannabinoid science and research and also, to assist those in need of cannabinoid therapies.
In his free time, Jesse likes to travel, ride motorcycles, and spend time with his family.
Hugo is known as one of Canada’s leading advisors in the cannabis industry, having represented a variety of global industry participants, including licensed producers, licensed producer applicants, licensed dealers, e-commerce platforms, seed-to-sale software developers, design and build firms, patient aggregators, equipment manufacturers and distributors, and cannabis branding companies. Hugo has acted as lead counsel or played a key role in a wide variety of transactions since the inception of the cannabis industry in Canada and is widely regarded as a Canadian cannabis industry pioneer.
Prior to joining Auxly as its President, Hugo was a senior corporate and commercial Partner at Bennett Jones LLP where he founded and built the firm’s Cannabis Group.
Hugo obtained his B.A from Carleton University and his J.D from the University of Toronto.
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