David Holmes is founder of Clade9, a cannabis cultivation and genetics company that operates facilities in California, Arizona and Nevada. Although Holmes was classically trained as a mathematician and did research at NASA/JPL, he has 18 years of cannabis cultivation and breeding experience. Some strains he developed include Snake Eyes, Phoenix OG, Diamond Dust and Bract City.
Jillian Kramer is a New York City-based freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the online or print versions of Glamour, Food & Wine, SELF, The Wall Street Journal, and more.
Kerrie and Kurt Badertscher are co-owners of Otoké Horticulture, LLC and authors of “Cannabis for Capitalists.” They have worked with large-scale cannabis producers for more than six years. Kerrie has been involved with plants her entire lifetime and earned certification as a Professional Horticulturist by the 100-year-old American Society for Horticulture Sciences. Kurt brings his 34 years of corporate experience and operations management skills to bear on the business challenges of cannabis cultivation.
Richard Kwesell is the co-founder, along with his brother Mike, of Heartland Industries and Strawberry Fields. They produce 14,000 pounds of medical and recreational cannabis every year in Colorado. Kwesell designed, built and currently operates a 90,000-square-foot greenhouse located in Pueblo County.
Taylor Webb, LEED-AP, is the co-founder of Grow Group (which includes Manifold Design and Development, BCER Engineering and R&R Engineers) and founder/president of Manifold Design and Development. Webb has 20 years' experience in architecture, the last five of which have been heavily focused on the design of state-of-the-art cannabis cultivation and processing facilities. With built projects in Oregon, Illinois and throughout Colorado, as well as designs underway in several other states, Manifold has designed more than 800,000 square feet of cannabis facilities.
Byron Ballantyne, PE, senior MEP engineer with BCER Engineering, has more than 10 years' experience designing mission-critical facilities. Over the past four years, he has worked on more than 15 cannabis cultivation and processing facilities—ranging from 5,000 square feet to more than 200,000 square feet-which feature water-cooled chillers, energy recovery systems, bulk CO2 storage and automated fertigation systems.
Douglas Dunkin, PE LEED-AP, is the co-founder of Grow Group and President/CEO for R&R Engineers–Surveyors Inc. Dunkin has more than 25 years’ experience managing R&R, focused on providing survey, site due diligence, entitlement support and civil engineering design for land development across the Rocky Mountain region. Building on a 30-year history, R&R has worked on several retrofit and new-built cannabis cultivation and processing facilities in multiple states.
Kenneth Morrow has been writing cannabis-related articles and books for more than 20 years. He owns Trichome Technologies, a cannabis R&D company. He also is an award-winning grower and breeder. He has made contributions to many of today's extraction methodologies and holds multiple patents. He consults on all cannabis-related subjects. Find him on Facebook at: Trichome Technologies or Instagram: TrichomeTechnologies.
Robert Eddy has 25 years’ experience managing state-of-the-art research greenhouses, growth rooms and growth chambers at Purdue University and Dow AgroSciences. He’s specialized in developing plant growth methods that are repeatable, reportable and scalable. His e-pubs on optimizing greenhouse production of corn, rice and Arabidopsis have been downloaded more than 50,000 times around the globe. He is currently a consultant with CEA Consultancy, advising vertical farms, hydroponic growers and cannabis operations.
Jolene Hansen is a freelance writer based in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area. A former horticulture professional, she is a frequent contributor to the Horticulture Group publications owned by Cannabis Business Times’ parent company, GIE Media.
Rino Ferrarese is the COO of Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions, one of four licensed producers in the state. He has experience as a compliance officer working in FDA-regulated industries under the guidelines of current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) for the production of prescription, Over-The-Counter (OTC) and homeopathic human drug products. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt and ISO auditor. Ferrarese also works with Elite Cannabis Enterprises developing and submitting competitive medical marijuana license applications for clients across the United States.Thomas Schultz is president of Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions. He is a Wall Street lawyer and investment banker turned pharmaceutical executive. In 1996, Schultz completed an IPO-oriented merger of the last major producers of witch hazel, the EE Dickinson Company and the TN Dickinson Company. He assumed leadership of Dickinson Brands Inc., the resulting firm, until 2014. By 2003, Schultz had led the buyout of the EE Dickinson interests and managed the acquisition of Humphreys Pharmacal Inc., a company that marketed witch hazel to Central and South American markets.
Dr. William Torello has over 35 years’ experience in the plant and soil sciences and has published more than 100 scientific and industry research papers in the areas of plant nutrition, organic fertilizer development, plant environmental stress, biological control of plant diseases and evaluating new plant varieties and cultivars. He works for Clade9 out of Los Angeles.
Kyra Reed launched Markyr Cannabis, a digital marketing and social media strategy agency, and Women in Cannabis, a support group for women entrepreneurs in cannabis, with four chapters in Northern California-in 2016. Reed’s cannabis clients include growers, manufacturers and software companies. She has spoken at cannabis conferences in California and Washington, D.C. Reed has also launched one of the largest Facebook groups for women in cannabis and Kadin Academy, an online business academy that educates women entrepreneurs in cannabis.
Dean Guske has more than 30 years of experience in taxation, accounting and business consulting. Guske’s firm, Guske & Company Inc., specializes in real estate and cannabis. He strives to develop successful tax strategies for cannabis industry entrepreneurs. Guske holds a master’s degree in taxation from Golden Gate University, is a licensed CPA in Washington and is part of the Washington Society of CPAs, where he serves on the taxation committee.
