While Ascend Wellness Holdings (AWH) founder and now former CEO Abner Kurtin awaits his arraignment hearing after a domestic battery charge earlier this month, the multistate cannabis operator is shuffling its leadership team.
The company announced Sept. 28 that it named Chief Financial Officer Daniel Neville and President and co-founder Frank Perullo as interim co-CEOs, effective immediately, in what’s being called a “leadership transition plan.” That plan includes Kurtin’s transition to executive chairman of the board.
The move comes after Kurtin, 55, was arrested Sept. 6 on a misdemeanor battery charge in Southern Florida, according to the Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Courts. His court date is set for Sept. 30.
RELATED: Ascend Wellness CEO Arrested, Charged With Domestic Battery
The plan also includes Neville and Perullo overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations while the company’s board—now chaired by Kurtin—commences a search for a new CEO to “support [its] next phase of growth.” The board retained Russell Reynolds, an executive search firm, to support the effort.
“AWH has an incredibly strong foundation in place and remains well positioned to advance the goal of breaking down traditional walls in the cannabis marketplace and redefining the industry from the ground up,” board members said in a public statement. “As the company prepares to enter the next phase of its growth story, the board determined that now was the right time to initiate this transition.
“While the board executes its search for the company’s next CEO, AWH is fortunate to have Dan and Frank at the helm. They are both intimately familiar with AWH, and the board is confident that they are well equipped to guide the company forward and continue executing our strategic priorities during this period.”
