Top Tier Management Crushing The Cannabis Sector as Sector Matures
GLOBENEWSWIRE 8:00 AM ET 2/6/2019
Symbol Last Price Change HTHHF 7.90914down 0 (0%) TGOWF 1.1607down 0 (0%) CURLF 6.9122down 0 (0%) APHA 10.71 0 (0%) QUOTES AS OF 03:59:24 PM ET 02/05/2019
POINT ROBERTS, Wash. and DELTA, British Columbia, Feb. 06, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Investorideas.com, a leading investor news resource covering hemp and cannabis stocks , looks at the growing demand to fill top tier management positions as the sector enters a new era of maturity.
In a recent Forbes article, Jay Czarkowski, Co-founder of H2 Talent commented, “If I was a recruiting company and I reached out to one of these cannabis companies a few years ago, asked them for a fee and then tell them I’d find them an employee, they’d laugh. They weren’t that sophisticated. Right now, there are cannabis companies that are raising $100 million in funding. They’re looking for top-notch talent and not just within the industry but outside. They’re willing to pay a firm like H2 Talent to find these top executives to be successful.”
News of Carol Bartz, former CEO of Yahoo and Autodesk and former Cisco Board Member, joining Caliva's (one of the largest vertically integrated cannabis companies in California) Board of Directors, showcases the future of the sector.
Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. (HTHHF) , with one of the largest cannabis footprints in the US, holding medical cannabis licenses in nine states and having plans to continue expanding throughout the United States and abroad, is also bringing in the ‘big guns’ when adding to management.
Harvest recently announced the appointment of John Cochran, COO. Cochran is the former CEO of multistate cannabis company, Loudpack Inc., former CEO of Ole Smoky Distillery, former CEO of Pabst Brewing Company and former President and COO of Fiji Water Company.
“With an aggressive growth plan for 2019 and beyond, attracting a world-class executive like John to work with our talented team and lead Harvest’s operations is very exciting,” said Harvest CEO Steve White. “John’s proven track record with some of the largest and best known multinational brands and companies will accelerate our growth as we aggressively expand into new markets. His cannabis experience is an added bonus.”
The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd.(TGOWF) headline of ‘The Green Organic Dutchman Adds Deep Medical and Pharmaceutical Experience to its Board of Directors’ shows the direction of the industry. The company announced the appointment of Dr. Caroline MacCallum and Jacques Dessureault to its Board of Directors.
"Dr. MacCallum's vast experience in cannabinoid research will be invaluable to TGOD," commented Brian Athaide, CEO & Director of TGOD. "She has been recognized by her peers in the medical industry as an expert in medical cannabis with a focus on dosing, which will be critical as we prepare to launch a suite of multi-dose products under the recently announced Responsible Regulation of Edible Cannabis Products in Canada," continued Athaide.
Athaide went on, saying, "Mr. Dessureault's senior executive and entrepreneurial experience in growing businesses, improving efficiency and leading research & development teams will be invaluable to TGOD. As we advance the research and development arms of our Company, including our beverage science and research division, Jacques' experience will be critical to launching new novel and innovative product lines."
Another multi-state operator, Curaleaf Holdings, Inc.(CURLF) announced leadership team expansion with two new executive appointments. Neil Davidson was appointed CFO and Todd Goffman was appointed General Counsel and Secretary.
Curaleaf (CURLF) also announced two additional changes to further support the rapid growth of the business. Peter Clateman has been appointed EVP, Business Development, and Jonathan Faucher, EVP, Finance, will shift his focus to the business in Florida, a key growth state for the Company.
Aphria Inc. (APHA) , aiming to reestablish itself as an industry leader in the cannabis space, strategically used a key hire in December 2018, with the appointment of Irwin D. Simon as Independent Chair of Aphria's(APHA) Board of Directors. Vic Neufeld, the current Chair, will remain Aphria's(APHA) Chief Executive Officer and Director. Neufeld had been the target of negative media publicity and Simon’s entry was a signal to the market they understood the significance of management.
Mr. Simon founded The Hain Celestial Group, Inc., a leading organic and natural products company in 1993. As Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Mr. Simon lead Hain Celestial for 25 years, growing the business to approximately US$3.0 billion in net sales including operations in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The head-hunting has only just begun as we enter 2019, a year which may define the future of this industry as this will be the first full year of recreational cannabis sales in Canada, medical sales in Massachusetts, US Hemp and CBD production, and the introduction of legal consumables in Canada.
For investors following cannabis stocks, Investor Ideas has created a stock directory of publicly traded CSE, TSX, TSXV, OTC, NASDAQ, NYSE, ASX Marijuana/Hemp Stocks
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Symbol Last Price Change CGC 46.53down 0 (0%) TLRY 78.15down 0 (0%) ACB 7.57down 0 (0%) ORZCF 0.3966up 0 (0%) EDVMF 17.22down 0 (0%) GOLD 13.24down 0 (0%) QUOTES AS OF 04:00:58 PM ET 02/06/2019
* Cannabis liberalisation spreading globally
* Miners suffering from lack of investor trust
* Fundraising increasingly difficult
By Joe Bavier and Barbara Lewis
CAPE TOWN, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A boom in cannabis investment is siphoning capital away from mining and hitting junior miners hardest, forcing them to up their game and potentially improving the quality of projects in a sector long rife with cowboy speculators.
Canada's relaxation of cannabis laws culminated in legalisation for recreational use in October. Other jurisdictions are following suit or liberalising their laws on medical or health use, creating an industry that has lured a breed of high-risk, high-return investors.
The world's top three listed cannabis companies - Canopy Growth(CGC), Tilray(TLRY) and Aurora Cannabis(ACB) - have a combined market value of around $30 billion. And consumers are expected to spend over $7 billion on cannabis products in Canada alone this year, according to Deloitte.
In Africa, where miners met this week for Cape Town's African Mining Indaba conference, cannabis companies are setting up projects in Lesotho, while other countries, including Zimbabwe and South Africa, plan to issue licences.
"Raising money is extremely difficult," said Patrick Downey, head of Canadian junior gold exploration company Orezone Gold(ORZCF) , who compared the cannabis boom to the headwinds juniors faced during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.
"It's a cyclical business, and it will come back," Downey said. "But you have to have a good project."
The rise of cannabis comes at a time when investors were already turning away from mining.
"The biggest problem in mining is that it destroys shareholder value," said Philip Hopwood, Deloitte's global mining and metals leader.
Miners operating in Africa - already viewed by many investors as a particularly risky bet - have been doubly hit.
"It's like the straw that broke the camel's back," said one explorer at the Indaba.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
As early IPOs, once a right of passage for exploration juniors, have slowed to a trickle with cannabis stocks delivering better short-term returns, miners are increasingly turning to private equity.
And as active investors replace passive stockholders, companies are having to sell the merits of their projects to more discerning potential backers.
Sebastien de Montessus - chief executive of Endeavour Mining(EDVMF) , one of the most successful mid-tier gold players - considers it a process of natural selection.
"It's a good thing ... You're going to have to be stronger and better," he told Reuters in an interview at the Indaba.
The CEO of Barrick Gold(GOLD), one of the world's biggest gold companies, said mining's struggles to fend off the challenge from cannabis reflected the poor state of the industry in the eyes of prospective investors.
"We should be embarrassed that somebody is prepared to make a choice between those two options," Mark Bristow told Reuters. "(Mining) is just so fundamentally material to our everyday lives, whereas I can't say the same of cannabis."
Majors such as Barrick and companies with projects already in production can better weather the storm.
The newest juniors in the riskiest areas are racing to adapt. And some are getting creative.
Prospect Resources' executive director Harry Greaves on Wednesday won an award at the Indaba for his lithium project in Zimbabwe.
He said Australian and Chinese investment had helped. And he was also considering growing cannabis at his lithium site on the outskirts of Zimbabwe's capital Harare.
"We don't yet have a marijuana licence, but we have the land available," he said. (Editing by Dale Hudson)
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