Aurora Cannabis Announces More Leadership Changes, Exec Appointments

One day after it announced a reshuffling of its board of directors, Canada-based Aurora Cannabis Inc. ACB rolled out changes at the executive level Thursday. 

What Happened

The company said Darren Karasiuk will be promoted to chief commercial officer. Karasiuk previously occupied the position of executive vice president of adult usage, global. Jill Swainson was promoted from senior vice president of legal affairs to chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Both promotions are effective immediately, according to Aurora. 

The new officers received 105,000 options under the company's stock option plan that can be exercised at $9.43 per share and 5,000 restricted share units that will be vested over three years in annual installments. 

On Wednesday, Aurora said it named former chairman Michael Singer as executive chairman of the board and independent director Ronald Funk was named as lead independent director. In addition, Margaret Atkins was appointed as new independent director and chair of the audit committee. 

The Cannabis Capital Conference is coming back to Toronto April 17-18!

Why It's Important

In a statement, Aurora CEO Terry Booth said the appointments are in line with the companny's commitment to strengthen its leadership team and scale up the organization.

Karasiuk joined Aurora when it acquired MedReleaf, where he had been the vice president for strategy and senior vice president and general manager for the recreational market.

Swainson joined Aurora in 2018 as general counsel, having previously served as partner at Brownlee LLP.

What's Next

In his new role, Karasiuk will be responsible for Aurora's commercial strategy and oversee customer-facing functions such as marketing, sales, insights and customer service, according to the cannabis company. 

Swainson will be oversee Aurora's in-house legal team and advise the company's officers and board members on legal and regulatory issues.

As corporate secretary, she'll be responsible for ensuring compliance with statory and regulatory requirements, the integrity of the governance framework and regulatory requirements, as well as enacting board decisions.  

Aurora shares were trading up 1.27 percent at $7.16 at the time of publication Thursday. 

Related Links:

Aurora Cannabis Revenue More Than Doubles Quarter-Over-Quarter

NYSE Gets Another Cannabis Company, CannTrust To Make Debut Feb. 25