At Nextleaf, we’ve gathered some of the brightest minds in the industry with proven track records and decades of cannabis experience, notable pioneers of extraction technology as well as some of the most talented scientists, researchers, and engineers.

Emma is a dynamic leader with proven expertise in building global lifestyle brands. She combines her passion for education, innovation, health sciences and marketing to deliver an “anything but average” approach to building world-class programs, products, and experiences. Most recently, Emma was a Partner, and Co-Founder of a multi-national strategic consulting company.

Through 10+ years working across the natural products, sport nutrition, and cannabis industries, Emma’s led the development of renowned education and experiential marketing programs within retail, CPG, and non-profit sectors; planned and facilitated hundreds of events for participants across North America; launched and reformulated SKU’s earning multi-million dollars in revenue across a variety of distribution channels including online, and retail.

A Human Resources Professional who creates, develops and delivers programs to support the needs of teams and individuals, increasing engagement, adding value and contributing growth to the bottom line through highly engaged and productive staff.

As a Certified Strengths Coach,  conducting workshops on performance development, building on an individual’s strengths and natural talents. I have a passion for helping people and believe that their success is my success! It’s great to be part of a team that is changing the industry and will positively impact the lives of others.

Catherine’s invested her time and talents in cannabis since the beginning of her career. While a passion for cultivation is what initially drew her into the cannabis industry, she’s immersed herself in all elements of the value chain, including processing, product development, regulatory, and patient care.

She’s a former MMAR Cultivation Manager, overseeing thousands of plants under production for medical use. A graduate of Kwantlen Polytechnical University’s Cannabis Professional Series, including Plant Production Facility Management, Catherine’s built a strong foundation of knowledge to pair with her valuable hands-on experience.

While previously at Aurora Cannabis, Catherine was part of the transition to a legal Adult-Use framework in Canada. Working within market development alongside sales, administration, and client care, Catherine provided support to several teams and stakeholders, responsible for initiatives around corporate social responsibility efforts, compliance, and risk management.

Now with Nextleaf, Catherine is the team lead for all aspects of customer success. Known for being solutions oriented she is driven by a desire to increase efficiency and streamline processes, which in turn helps clients scale their business with greater ease.

With a passion for seeing small businesses scale and thrive, she’s a firm believer that the most sustainable and viable growth opportunities within cannabis is not from the traditional vertically integrated operations model, but rather for businesses (of all sizes) to focus firmly on their core expertise.

Jason is driven by results and relationships. He has managed multi-million-dollar account portfolios, helped raise capital resulting in oversubscribed non-brokered financing, and engaged thousands of stakeholders through a diversity of roles at several publicly traded cannabis companies, and within a major league sports team.

Known for his work ethic and for being a ‘swiss army knife’, Jason’s demonstrated through his successful delivery of investor relations events with international reach, marketing and PR strategy, corporate social responsibility and community impact initiatives. Jason ranked as one of the Top 10 Account Representatives in Major League Soccer (MLS) working with the Vancouver Whitecaps. Working alongside Nextleaf’s Executive Team, Jason contributed to the completion of an oversubscribed non-brokered financing for $3 million during the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Through his work experiences, Jason’s been deployed internationally for corporate development projects. This helped foster a sense of adventure, which has allowed him to transition into the dynamic cannabis industry with ease. As his knowledge around cannabis grew, it quickly became a passion. It’s an industry he wholeheartedly believes can make a positive difference in our quality of life.

Jason’s advice for transitioning into a career in the Cannabis Industry: “Don’t be afraid to wear a lot of hats in the beginning. Roll up your sleeves and pitch in with Operations, even if you intend to work within Corporate Services, or vice-versa. The more we all learn and know about different roles, the more harmonious the company and industry can be”

Ryan’s dedicated to driving brand growth through intelligent marketing strategy, with a focus on digital and event marketing. He’s successfully built online assets and infrastructure from the ground-up for emerging and established companies and led the execution of globally reaching event activations to engage industry, investor, and consumer audiences alike.

Ryan played a strategic role in retail operations and brand launch during the iconic transition from prohibition to legal adult-use cannabis in Canada while working with award winning multi-provincial retailer, Kiaro.

Since joining Nextleaf, Ryan’s increased visibility for the company’s patent portfolio and innovative technology, ensuring the value of intellectual property is integrated across all communication channels.

A communications and media graduate from Simon Fraser University, Ryan applied his skills in various industries before finding his niche within cannabis. He witnessed the impact of cannabis on a close family member coping with chronic pain and has been an advocate ever since.

Ryan’s work and insights have been featured in industry publications including Cannabis Retail Magazine, Leafly, and Cannabis Prospect Magazine.