SAN JOSE, CA (April 10, 2019) — PRESS RELEASE — Caliva, a California-based cannabis company, has added to its executive team. The company, which has just come off the heels of a $75M dollar funding round, welcomes Stephan Mätt as CMO, Tim Laehy as CFO, Elizabeth Cookey as Head of Retail and Shanon Farney as Vice President of People.
With over 20 years of consumer-packaged goods (CPG) skincare and cannabis experience, Mätt has built an accomplished career as a CPG marketing expert. Before becoming the chief marketing officer of Caliva, Mätt’s experience included: Chief Marketing Officer for Eaze, Head of Marketing for Ole Henriksen (LVMH), Partner for Lilah Beauty, Founder and Chief Marketing Officer for Own Skin Health, Global Vice President of Brand Management for Bare Minerals Cosmetics and Skincare, Vice President of Marketing for Guthy-Renker (Proactiv), Director of Marketing and Business Development for Neutrogena at Johnson & Johnson, and Manager of Strategic Marketing at Allergan Pharmaceuticals. Mätt’s extensive consumer marketing experience puts him in a unique category of beauty marketing experts with a background in both luxury cosmetics and skincare.
Laehy, Caliva’s chief financial officer, also brings over 20 years of senior finance and management experience in multiple high growth industries including: Crypto Currency, Financial Services, Social Media, Digital Media, Cyber Security, Telecommunications and Consumer Electronics. He has been a CFO at both private and public companies managing international and domestic operations. His experience includes building and managing all administrative functions along with providing leadership for growth companies. Previously, Laehy has held positions at Coinbase, Livefyre, YuMe, Cloudshield Technologies, MetroFi, Collation (acquired by IBM) and Covad Communications.
Cooksey, head of retail for Caliva, is a passionate customer advocate and brings extensive knowledge of both traditional and non-traditional strategies to innovate, build, and evolve customer and team experiences and drive results. Cooksey joins the brand with extensive experience in retail operations, strategy and team development with both start-up and established retailers. She launched inaugural retail channels for brands BHLDN and ModCloth, and she has served best-in-class brands like Nike, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters and Free People leading operations and CX initiatives, dynamic teams and growth.
Farney, vice president of people for Caliva, is a strong leader with a passion for people, development and learning of overall business ecosystems. She is enthusiastic about building motivated and diverse business teams to drive the business, while unleashing potential and co-creation to move the business forward. Previously, Farney has held positions at Harbor Freight Tools ($4-billion, privately owned tool retailer with 800 stores), Pacific Sunwear and Orchard Supply Hardware ($600-million entity of Lowe's with 100 hardware and tool retail stores).
“As a consumer goods company focused on omnipresent distribution, we know these new members of the Caliva family will help us further cement our reputation as industry leaders and innovators,” says Dennis O’Malley, president and CEO of Caliva. “Stephen, Tim, Elizabeth and Shanon are not only exclamatory professionals in their fields, but are also world class team leaders ready to take Caliva to the next level.”
These latest hires are just a small part of the massive growth taking place in the Caliva organization. The company’s human resources have nearly tripled since December of 2017, growing from a team of 161 to a current roster of 505 employees—120 of whom were just recently hired in Q1 of 2019.
