Wednesday, November 13th, 2019

9:00 AM - 10:15 AM, Breakfast Roundtable: Herscher - Guerin B, Webcast

Women Leadership in Cannabis: Medical - Science - Leisure - Technology

Host: Simone Cimiluca-Radzins, co-founder, Kadin's List

Lori Ajax, Chief of Bureau of Cannabis Control, State of California

Whitney Beatty, Founder/Chief Executive Officer, Apothecarry Brands, Inc.

Jazmín Aguiar, President, The Working Group

Sara Lasner, Director of Community Affairs, Eaze

Lori Ajax, Chief of Bureau of Cannabis Control, State of California: In February 2016, Governor Brown appointed Chief Ajax as the first Chief of the newly formed Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation (now known as the Bureau of Cannabis Control) which is responsible for implementing the state regulatory system for medical and adult use cannabis. Prior to her appointment, Chief Ajax served as Chief Deputy Director at the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control where she spent 22 years working her way up the ranks, starting at the investigator trainee level. Ajax spent ten years in private industry prior to her state government career. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from California State University, Sacramento.

Jazmin Aguiar brings close to a decade’s worth of experience to the cannabis industry with a specific emphasis on regulation, advocacy, licensing, strategy, and social equity. A bi-lingual business development expert within the national

Spanish-speaking markets, Jazmin used her experience as a Los Angeles native to bridge the gap between business owners and government officials within California and across the border. Awarded one of the first social equity licenses within the City of Los Angeles, Jazmin understands the challenges and obstacles facing the average applicant. She provides valuable expertise, consulting and support throughout the entire application process by helping empower, shape and streamline processes. Jazmin believes advocacy, education and regulation comprehension create solid platforms of success within cannabis equity development.

Sara Lasner is the Director of Community Affairs at Eaze, where she spearheads their outreach for local community engagement and support.  She and the team work in a number of states highlighting the community benefits of cannabis regulations and the impact of legal safe access for patients and consumers.  Eaze's community team helps to build support for legislation that will allow for adult use cannabis regulations across the country.  She previously worked at Lyft as the Director of Community Affairs, managing grassroots and grasstop efforts to facilitate passage of ridesharing regulations in 44 states.  Prior to her work at Lyft she was the Director of Development at the Wikimedia Foundation, managing a team raising funds for their many projects, including Wikipedia.  Sara also has worked as Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Adrian Fenty and as the Executive Director of the Mayor's Public Education Fund, raising millions of dollars for the public schools in Washington D.C. Sara earned her B.A. at the California Sate University, Chico.

Whitney Beatty, Founder and CEO, Apothecarry Brands: Whitney was inspired by a lack of stylish, safe cannabis storage systems and a disdain for storing medicine in a shoebox. After meeting so many like-minded cannabis users, who lamented about a lack of good storage system, worried about securing buds away from kids and pets, and who were tired of searching around for their stash to discover it dried out from plastic baggies and non-airtight dispensary jars, Apothecarry was born. The brand seeks to redefine the image of cannabis users who take pride and pleasure in their stash, while filling a hole in the marijuana paraphernalia market for everyone from the attorneys who tokes after their high powered workday, to the “stiletto stoners” who are hosting ladies night, to the seniors using medication for health benefits and everyone in between who demands the best in all things. Their initial offering, the Apothecarry Case, is a sleek and sexy storage and humidity system designed to safely keep cannabis at its freshest, most optimum quality, while providing luxury tools and humidity control for the discriminating connoisseur. Her company Apothecarry was selected for the first cohort of Canopy San Diego cannabis business accelerator, won the ArcView Groups 2017 Los Angeles pitch prize and was selected at the Fall 2017 Pipeline LA portfolio company. Apothecarry closed her seed round in 2017 and is currently seeing 100% YoY growth.

Simone Cimiluca-Radzins, co-founder, Kadin Enterprises: Simone’s expertise is in business strategy, finance, risk management, and cannabis accounting. Simone has helped take companies public, performed due-diligences, and has improved business operations for hundreds of cannabis clients since 2014. Simone is an active member of the cannabis business community in both Southern California and the Pacific Northwest. She has spoken about cannabis banking and 280E issues on National Public Radio (NPR) and 420Radio; has lectured on the US cannabis economy at Cannafest in Prague, CZ; and has given multiple talks at Women Grow and the University of Oregon. With a background in Big 4 public accounting and international consulting for Fortune 500 companies, Simone has lived and worked in Spain and France and has assisted clients throughout Latin America, Western and Northern Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. Simone is the owner of LIV Consulting, a CPA and management consulting and advisory firm for the cannabis industry. Simone advises cannabis companies in all sectors of the industry on strategy and business process improvement. Simone graduated with dual degrees in Spanish and Accounting from the University of Oregon and holds an active CPA certificate from the State of Oregon.