ACG 101 Illegal to Essential: The Essential Cannabis Business Discussion

Mark Levinson has decades of broad, sophisticated transactional experience structuring and closing projects, and managing litigation strategies in a timely manner. In counseling clients, Mark routinely represents clients ranging from public companies to private equity to governments and individuals on a variety of business challenges and arrangements. Mark routinely leads in structuring and executing on a range of transactions, including consumer M&A, capital market, real estate (acquisition, disposition, and syndication across a range of asset classes), commercial, and real estate and public finance (as lender, bond, underwriter, trustee, and developer counsel), and in charter school and governmental infrastructure and P-3 financing, cannabis, and transaction and finance workouts from beginning to end.

In California and across the United States, his work across industries includes real estate (multifamily, industrial, office), consumer, cannabis, governmental, charter school, media, technology, and involvement with boards and committees in a variety of matters.

Based in the Chicago office. Andrew leads the Valuation practice for Real Estate and Cannabis engagements and has evaluated the full array of cannabis businesses from pre-license to multi-state operators, in both medical and adult-use states, spanning cultivation centers, dispensaries, processing, testing labs and distribution. Recent clients include IIPR, New Lake Capital, and FlowerOne. Andrew has been involved in the real estate business for more than 20 years and has performed valuations on all real estate classes (industrial, commercial, residential, development land). Special-use valuations include affordable housing, student housing, senior housing, cannabis facilities (indoor/outdoor, extraction labs), landfills, waste transfer stations, golf courses, marinas, hospitals, and universities. He is also experienced in the valuation of leasehold, leased fee, and partial interests, as well as purchase price allocations (GAAP, IFRS and IRC 1060) for financial reporting. His valuations have been completed nationwide for a variety of assignments including mortgage financing, litigation, tax appeal, estate gifts, asset management, workouts, and restructuring, as well as valuation for financial reporting including purchase price allocations (ASC 805), impairment studies, and

From The Earth is a full spectrum cannabis lifestyle company founded by Kintu Patel and Jayson Quinones and comprises multiple entities and projects that make up a vertically integrated cannabis enterprise. With a team of experts in cultivation, manufacturing and retail sales, From The Earth has utilized cutting-edge technology, a commitment to quality and experienced personnel to create one of the most recognizable and well-respected brands in the cannabis industry.

Courtney has over 25 years of experience in executive leadership positions with specialties in marketing and sales, product development and operations management. She is an entrepreneur who created and sold her first company, Fresh and Ready. Courtney effectively managed three manufacturing facilities with a total of 500 employees and negotiated all major management contracts involving more than 1,100 customers across the western US, FDA and USDA regulated kitchens , 70 daily truck routes servicing airlines, hospitals, universities, the US Military, hotels, convention centers, convenience stores and others.

Courtney then joined Vertical Brands, a substantial cannabis management company headquartered in Agoura Hills as President of Brand Development where she was responsible for new business development and edible product development. Dorne was central to building and launching multiple unique Vertical-owned brands across the U.S., one of which she spearheaded as the original creator and designer.

Mr. O’Keefe officially joined Flower One in July of 2019 as the Chief Strategy Officer, bringing over a decade of cannabis industry experience and a demonstrated history of success in fundraising, strategic partnerships and brand development. Prior to joining Flower One, Mr. O’Keefe was an early partner and the Senior Vice President of Business Development at MedMen where he played an instrumental role in capitalizing and growing the business into one of the industry’s first national brands. 

Mr. O’Keefe has advised and worked closely with some of the industry’s most iconic brands such as Cookies, Old Pal, Lift Ticket’s, GPen, Nature’s Lab, and more. In his first two years at Flower One, Mr. O’Keefe has completely re-built the companies brand partner program and implemented a number of key operational improvements resulting in dramatic increases to product quality, pricing, and overall operating efficiencies. In addition, Mr. O’Keefe leads all the Company fundraising efforts and also conducted the successful restructuring transaction that took place in early 2021.

Flower One is the largest cannabis cultivator, producer and full-service brand fulfillment partner in the state of Nevada. Flower One is the largest cannabis cultivator, producer, and full-service brand fulfillment partner in the state of Nevada. By combining more than 20 years of greenhouse operational excellence with best-in-class cannabis operators, Flower One offers consistent, reliable, and scalable fulfillment to a growing number of industry-leading cannabis brands (Cookies, Kiva, Old Pal, Heavy Hitters, Lift Tickets, The Clear, and Flower One’s leading in-house brand, NLVO, and more). Flower One currently produces a wide range of products from flower, full-spectrum oils, and distillates to finished consumer packaged goods, including a variety of: pre-rolls, concentrates, edibles, topicals, and more for the top-performing brands in cannabis. Flower One’s Nevada footprint includes the Company’s flagship facility, a 400,000 square-foot high-tech greenhouse and 55,000 square-foot production facility, as well as a second site with a 25,000 square-foot indoor cultivation facility and commercial kitchen. Flower One has built an industry-leading team focused on becoming the first high-quality, low-cost brand fulfillment partner.

Satya Capital is a privately held boutique investment firm established with the idea of bringing together the brightest minds to build businesses. Satya's leadership team has over three-decades of combined experience in institutional finance, including investment banking, private equity, and venture investing. Satya focuses on being early adopters and finding new and exciting opportunities within the alternative investment space. Satya's competitive advantage has led them to investing as an operator in A Golden State, a cultivation, processing, distribution and retail cannabis company.

Before Co-Founding Satya Capital, SImmon was COO/CCO at Fort Hill Investment Partners LLC, an approximately $600MM credit fund. Prior to Fort Hill, Simmon worked at the CIT Group Inc., where he helped establish the firm’s Sponsor Finance platform, originating, structuring and underwriting credit transactions. Before CIT, he worked in the Equities Division at Goldman Sachs & Co. in NYC. He holds a B.S. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California, Davis and an MBA in Finance and Management from the NYU Stern School of Business.