Advancing women in Illinois cannabiz, Pete Kadens and Al Goldstein REIT invests $100 million, grass and the future of work and more.
As executive opportunities in cannabis decrease, local industry veterans organize to create more opportunities for women
Illinois State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-11) says it will take decades to figure out how to properly regulate the cannabis industry.
The early returns are in, and tax receipts indicate there is a lot of money to be made selling cannabis in Illinois.
The Illinois Department of Revenue collected $10 million in taxes from recreational cannabis sales, with the state’s growing number of dispensaries flooded with customers and unable to reliably keep inventory in stock.
As state government, private industry and others sort out how to legally scale an industry that for generations has flourished in underground markets, women and individuals of color are organizing for advancement and ownership in this historically high-growth Illinois cannabis sector.
“This is still capitalism. It’s a market,” said Illinois State Senator Celina Villanueva, during her recent keynote address at the Equal Opportunity in the Cannabis Industry conference. “The people who have been failed by the policy are the best people to know how to change things.”
Hundreds of area professionals from all walks of life attended the educational conference hosted at Kent Law School and organized by Illinois Women in Cannabis, a networking group started by a few early medical cannabis industry advocates and executives.
A major concern of conference attendees: currently the Illinois cannabis industry – as measured by owners, directors, and senior executives of leading companies – is largely run by white men. As reported by WTTW this week, the number of women to hold senior executive positions in leading cannabis companies dropped to 17 percent in 2019.
It’s too early to tell how these numbers will evolve, but in the meantime industry pioneers like Mindy Segal were on hand sharing their stories. Segal, after starting the iconic HotChocolate Chicago restaurant and dessert bar, operates her MindysEdibles brand of THC-infused products in collaboration with Cresco Labs.
Other early executives and investors of Cresco Labs and Green Thumb Industries – as well as former and current lawmakers with stakes in the new legislation – were able to share war stories and best practices with newer industry entrants.
Villanueva, who recently was appointed her seat after serving in the Illinois house, shared her own history of being raised by Mexican immigrants on the Southwest Side and living paycheck-to-paycheck for most of her career.
In her opinion, there is a clear pathway for professional advancement, at least as far as the public sector is concerned.
“Being a freshman legislator,” VIllenueva said, “I found I needed to find my voice somewhere. Cannabis was there percolating.”
As for the future?
“Is this legislation perfect?,” she asked rhetorically during her talk. “No. Nothing is perfect. I got involved knowing this is going to be the next 20, 30, 40 years of my life. They are still legislating alcohol.”
Grown In Update
Guess what? Next week we’re growing to two issues a week, Monday and Thursday. On Monday’s we’re going to start giving you a weekly round of Illinois and national cannabis business news along with some reporting and an interesting stat or two. Thursdays will look much the same as our old Wednesday report, with a few small changes. AND we’re going to start dropping in your email boxes at 7:30 a.m., so you can get the news before your day starts. Also, you can always read past issues through our website.
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Notable Events: New Decade, New World International Business Conference, Green in Chi Panel
Tahj McDaniel, the 24-year-old chief business officer of local cannabis digital startup ShopHitly, will present “Taking Back My Color: A Discussion About Ancillary Opportunities for Black and Brown people in a Green World”.
Have a cannabis industry event you want included in Grown In? Email brad@grownin.com.
What: New Decade New World Conference
When: March 2 and 3
Where: 5500 N. St. Louis Avenue, Chicago
Why: A group of enterprising college students at Northeastern Illinois University are hosting a public panel on the future of work called New Decade New World. Alongside artificial intelligence automation and healthcare, cannabis is very high on their list of most important sectors in which to allocate professional time.
“What is new is not just about the technology, but also about what is in the ground – cannabis,” said co-organizer Joseph Palomares, a co-organizer of the conference that raised $10,000 from South Carolina University among other sponsors, who added that the student-led event is not done in collaboration with the state university.
On March 2, Tahj McDaniel, a 24-year-old serial entrepreneur who co-founded Chicago-based cannabis e-commerce platform ShopHitly with digital industry pioneer Scott Samuel, will discuss “Ancillary Opportunities for Black and Brown people in a Green World.
McDaniel told Grown In he will highlight opportunities for minorities to enter the cannabis industry beyond well-publicized opportunities to apply for licenses for “plant touching” aspects of the industry like owning or working for a retailer, growth operation, processing company, and transportation service.
“There are a lot of opportunities that exist industry-wide and many more ways to get involved in the cannabis industry than just working for a dispensary,” he said.
Amy Nathan, a member of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago Working Cannabis Group, will speak on March 3. Nathan, the Founder and Executive Director of Growmentum Lab, which helps social equity entrepreneurs grow businesses, will present on “Lessons from Illinois for the emerging cannabis global marketplace: impact of social enterprise”.
“Students are pretty idealistic and not as downtrodden with mental models many people eventually develop,” said Nathan, who started her career nearly 30 years ago in the Middle East setting up joint business opportunities between Israeli arab and jewish entrepreneurs. “We’re talking about a brand new industry that is unlike anything else that exists and is just ripe for people who are just launching their careers to get in on the ground floor.”
Green in Chi monthly industry mixer and panel March 4
Dozens to hundreds of Chicago professionals looking to work or invest in the cannabis industry will converge at the Hubbard Inn in River North for an evening of networking and education at Green in Chi on March 4.
Green in Chi is run by local industry event organizer and promoter Tony Paolella.
Cannabis Company Tracker: NewLake Capital Partners, Green Thumb Industries, Acreage Holdings
Investment and business expansion news about cannabis companies doing business in Illinois.
Pete Kadens on left, and Al Goldstein on right.
Pete Kadens and Al Goldstein acquire more cannabis assets at NewLake Capital Partners
Six months after raising $100 million to purchase cannabis properties from distressed publicly-owned companies in the sector, NewLake Capital Partners, founded by Green Thumbs Industries co-founder and former CEO Pete Kadens and Avant founder and CEO Al Goldstein is fully investing and, as reported by Crain’s Chicago Business, is out raising more money.
According to Crain’s, NewLake recently acquired 10 dispensaries for $20 million in cash and liability assumption from Chicago-based Grassroots Cannabis. Last July, during the peak of the market for publicly traded cannabis companies, Grassroots agreed to be acquired for $875 million. That transaction is scheduled to close later this year.
Naperville mayor gives green light to Green Thumb Industries’ effort to sell recreational product in the community
“I really want to just debunk some of the comments that have been made publicly at City Council meetings and then also just out in the public about how little we have to gain financially,” Naperville Mayor Steve Cherico said Feb. 19 during a Let’s Talk Cannabis panel discussion.
As reported by The Daily Marijuana Observer, Cherico anticipates the community to generate an additional $500,000 per year in tax revenue with each new recreational location.
Chicago-based Green Thumb Industries has authorization from the state to open a recreational dispensary in Naperville. The community, to date, has not authorized the commercialization of recreational cannabis. There will be a city-wide, non-binding referendum for Naperville voters during the March 17 Illinois Primary.
New York-based Acreage Holdings opens Nature’s Care recreational dispensary in Rolling Meadows
After opening a Nature’s Care medical dispensary in Rolling Meadows in 2016, New York-based publicly-traded multi-state cannabis cultivator, processor and retailer Acreage Holdings on Feb. 19 expanded into recreational sales in the community.
Acreage board directors include former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, former Massachusetts governor William Weld and former Cananadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
Roll Call: Lisa Kolber, Altan Erdermir, Lisa Mann
Mini profiles of interesting cannabis industry notables and newsmakers in Illinois.
Longtime education technology executive Lisa Kolber in 2019 began directing business development, training and outreach for Bannockburn-based Compassionate Clinics of America. In addition to general public education, Compassionate Clinics provides accredited continuing education courses for individuals looking to obtain or renew licenses to work within various cannabis-related industries.
Last August Altan Erdermir co-founded Green in Chi, a monthly networking and educational event for recent or soon to be recent transplants to the Illinois cannabis community. His other ventures include Red Ivy Marketing, AppointmentsIQ and the Voice of Blockchain Conference.
A former executive director of Youth Technology Corp who recently ran special events with Sun-Times Media Corp, Lisa Mann created the “To Be Blunt” cannabis column for the Chicago Reader. She also represents the Reader when they partner with cannabis industry events and is a Certified Medical Cannabis Wellness Advisor & Patient Care Provider.