Experience Matters

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Consumer, Commercial & Industrial Products, Services, Retail and Delivery

It seems my family DNA includes “work is fun”. I grew up working summers for my father in his Culligan Water Conditioning franchises. I did accounts receivable work, delivery route mapping, home deliveries and sales. We owned multiple franchises originally founded by my grandfather in the early 1960s. My father left his law practice in the mid-60’s to help run the growing business.

I attended Boston College where I majored in Political Science (lots of writing) with a concentration in Marketing - my real passion. During my senior year, after listening to a guest lecturer talk about his company, I worked for his competitor intelligence firm and continued the summer after graduation in 1986. I worked in telesales and competitor research for Fortune 500 clients.

My first full-time work was in customer support for a trade show display and graphics manufacturer, Outline, Inc. I left with great experience working with national sales teams, their clients, inspecting sales orders, and learning the process end-to-end. Even better, I gained exposure to trade show display best practices.

In 1988, I joined the family Culligan business full time. For 11 years, I served as Vice President and General Manager for several franchises throughout New England. Our residential operations also included territory in New York state and a large commercial/industrial business with no territory boundaries allowing us to operate nationally and even internationally.

As a General Manager, I supervised all aspects of the business including sales, marketing, installation, service, delivery, accounts receivable and payable, financing, plant operations and M&A. My specialty was marketing and advertising where I wrote ad copy, worked with an outside agency and was President of the Culligan Dealers of New England Advertising Co-op for many years. We sold the franchises to Culligan International in 1998 at a time of consolidation in the industry.

I managed the acquired operations for a year, through two more mergers, then moved back to Boston to transition to high tech. For six months prior to entering the Boston College MBA full-time program (Go Eagles!), I worked at Kinetic Computer, the first mobile device for fleet vehicles that offered GPS tracking and SMS text messaging.

During the MBA program, I was selected to participate in the development of the school’s first new product development course, led by Mitsubishi Electric. I was a member of a consulting team project for EMC and we won the prestigous Dianne Weiss presentation competition. In my second year, I served as the MBA student government president.

Software Subscription Renewals, Branding & Marketing, Business Development, Communications and Customer Support

Between first and second year of the MBA program, I was an intern at PTC (NASDAQ:PTC) and later a full-time employee. PTC, a $1.3B software firm, was the originator of 3D Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) software and later expanded to a full suite of software for product development, after-market service, Internet-of-Things and Augmented Reality.

For ten years at PTC , I served in a managerial capacity, eventually as Senior Director, leading marketing and business development teams for the $700 million support renewal business. I was selected to represent my department in various company-wide initiatives, including the company’s transition to Salesforce.com and from traditional software and support to subscription model.

Furniture Manufacturing, Retail Sales

In between stints at PTC, after the 2001 dot.com bust and downturn in the high tech sector, I was General Manager of Bedworks, a furniture manufacturer and retailer. The company designed and built high-end shaker-style furniture and platform beds at its headquarters in Malden, MA and operated two retail stores. The areas first-ever futon store, Bedworks, was located in Central Square, Cambridge and its higher end store, Home Design, operated just outside of of Harvard Square, Cambridge. The role focused on leading the company to profitability, which I achieved, and included creating the first website, inproving manufacturing efficiency, giving the the Home Design store a refresh and re-considering which SKUs each store would offer to address the market.

Cannabis CPG, International Manufacturing, Distribution, Cultivation, Product Development, Operations

In 2014, I co-founded CannaKorp. With the nascent cannabis industry predicted to experience exponential growth, I took the role of CEO to bring a cannabis vaporizer device to market. Often referred to as the “Keurig of Cannabis”, the pod-based vaporizer, “Wisp”, was designed as a home appliance with a recurring revenue model just like Keurig coffee pods. The team included four former Keurig executives and we raised $8 million, mostly from individual high net worth investors and family offices. We finalized the first commercial vaporizer for pilot programs in 2018, including 1,000 units manufactured in China and thousands of pods from a world-class manufacturer in Germany. In May 2019, we sold the business to a U.S. OTC traded company, Target Group (OTC: CBDY), with operations known as Canary Rx, a cannabis Licensed Producer in Canada .

I then joined Massachusetts-based MariMed, Inc (OTC: MRMD) in December 2018 as SVP and GM of the Product Group. MariMed is a multi-state operator of cannabis cultivation centers and dispensaries. The role included driving revenue from MariMed’s own branded, infused products by increasing volume sold, expanding SKUs and adding new sales territories through partners and contract manufacturers. I was also responsible for looking for products MariMed could license to manufacture and distribute through its operations.

In December 2019, I became CEO of MA-based Berkshire Roots, a vertically integrated cannabis cultivator, manufacturer, retailer and wholesaler. While CEO, we increased cultivation canopy with a new building, created a new extraction lab and increased its capabilities, expanded the kitchen space and opened a second dispensary in Boston. Although we had to pivot certain plans early in my tenure because of COVID, we navigated through many changes in my approximately three and a half years including an incredible downturn in the cannabis industry nationwide. In that period, the company won many dispensary and product awards including “Best of the Berkshires” four years in a row. A highlight of my experience was initiating a collaborative licensing agreement with Heavy Metal Entertainment to create Heavy Metal Cannabis.

In parallel with my cannabis career, I became acquainted with Dr. Jordan Tishler, a Harvard and Harvard Medical School graduate who has dedicated himself to the study and clinical practice of cannabis for medicinal use after years as a mainstream physician. Dr .Tishler founded the non-profit Association of Cannibinoid Specialists (ACS) whose mission is to provide evidence and experience-based education to support the premise that cannabis should be treated as a medicine and, therefore, patients and related laws and regulations need to be created, modified, and viewed differently than Adult-use laws and regulations. I have been on ACS’ Board of Directors since 2021.

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