EXCLUSIVE: Why Professionals With Mainstream Experience Are Crucial In The Cannabis Industry

For the cannabis industry to continue to evolve and establish itself in the mainstream market, employing professionals with mainstream industry experience is vital, according to industry experts gathered at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference.

The sector may have its unique characteristics and regulatory considerations, but the principles and practices that have driven success in other industries are equally applicable.

That's according to Susan Thronson, a board member at Trulieve Cannabis Corp TRUL TCNNF. The time Thronson spent at Marriott International Inc MAR helped her prepare "for a VUCA environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and adaptation" in cannabis.

However, one of the challenges unique to cannabis is the velocity, Thronson told attendees at Chicago Marriott Downtown on Thursday.

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"Things happen so fast in the landscape that is ever-changing, as we have just learned this week once again," she continued, referencing the Senate Banking Committee approving the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act on Wednesday.

Michele Roberts, a board director at Cresco Labs Inc CL CRLBF also participated in the panel with Thronson and Wendy Berger, a board director at Green Thumb Industries Inc CTII GTBIF. Bryna Dahlin, the managing partner at Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP moderated.

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What annoys the panelists is that running a cannabis business these days means being dependent on legislators.

"Having to deal state by state by state, is a challenge for obvious reasons, and then having to live and breathe and hope and pray that the people of Washington DC will do the right thing creates challenges," Roberts said.

The former executive director of the National Basketball Players Association and previously chief of the trial division for the public defender's office in DC, Roberts said that it's challenging to scale in cannabis because "you don't know what new obstacles are going to be around it."

That's why it's important to support those at the helm of cannabis companies, said GTI's Berger.

"I think what we can all bring to that is supporting our leaders and supporting the team members through this kind of chaos," Berger continued, as "from chaos comes opportunity."

Diversity: Meanwhile, as attitudes towards cannabis continue to shift worldwide, there is an increasing need to ensure that the industry reflects the diverse communities it serves.

Berger shared data showing that 25% of the total board of director seats at the 11 largest publicly traded companies by market cap are held by women and 11% by minorities.

Cresco's Roberts agreed that the cannabis industry has shown an interest and is trying to avoid what happened in tech. But more needs to be done.

"It's not enough," she said. "It's certainly a goal, but it's not enough to simply say, okay, every company's got somebody diverse and some women on the board if the balance of the industry is going to be predominated by white men."

At Trulieve, the board of directors is gender equal, representing 50% women and 50% men.

"What that then does is it takes gender off the table," Thronson said. "We all come in with our expertise and our point of view and our perspectives."

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Photo: Courtesy of Benzinga