What’s next for the cannabis rollercoaster following legalization last October? 2019 promises to be another year of fast-paced change, market moving headlines and uncertainty, as the US continues its march towards legalization, Ottawa gets set to regulate edibles and new technologies revolutionize how cannabis is used and consumed. Will this be the year that big pharma and big consumer get into cannabis? Will Ontario figure out retail? Should we brace for a cannabis stock market shock and if the US legalizes will Canadian listings still matter? The Canadian Club will cut through the hype with a panel of experts who will share their unique insights and expertise on all things cannabis.
Matt Bottemley
Director, Equity Research. Canaccord Genuity Inc.
Matt Bottomley joined Canaccord Genuity in 2015. He is an equity research analyst with a current focus on the cannabis industry (both in Canada and internationally) and alternative pharmaceuticals. Previously, Matt worked as a financial consultant in commercial litigations, preparing business valuations and damage quantification reports, with an emphasis on the Canadian pharmaceutical industry. Matt also spent five years in the Audit and Assurance group at PricewaterhouseCoopers, covering a variety of industries including manufacturing, real estate, automotive and healthcare. Matt is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator and graduated from McMaster University with an Honours Bachelor of Commerce.
Eric Foster
Partner, Dentons
Eric Foster’s practice focuses on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions (public and private), regulatory compliance, cannabis law and emerging companies. Eric routinely acts as counsel to both public and private issuers and securities dealers, with a particular focus on the cannabis, mining, life sciences, real estate and technology sectors. Eric is the head of Dentons’ Canadian cannabis practice and is recognized as one of Canada’s leading cannabis lawyers.
Eric’s corporate finance practice involves advising issuers, securities dealers and institutional investors in a wide range of financing transactions, including IPOs, secondary offerings, private placements and other forms of equity and debt financing. In his M&A practice, Eric advises acquirers and target companies involved in friendly and hostile takeover bids, plans of arrangement, reverse takeovers and other business combination transactions. Eric has acted on several of the largest and most well-publicized transactions in the cannabis industry and has experience with complex commercial agreements for cannabis industry participants including cannabis licensing, royalty, supply, consulting and celebrity partnership agreements.
Eric also regularly provides advice to Canadian public companies on their disclosure, corporate governance, and other corporate and securities law obligations. Additionally, Eric frequently advises start-ups and emerging companies with respect to corporate structure, governance, financing and licensing matters.
Robyn Rabinovich
Vice President of Business Strategy, TerrAscend Corp.
Robyn Rabinovich brings a wealth of experience from the cannabis industry with four years of experience in the space. From business development, to procurement of quality product, promotion and compliance within the Cannabis Act, she levers her knowledge and experience to strategically evaluate business development opportunities within Canada and internationally. Robyn obtained her International Business degree from Dalhousie University.
Brian Wagner
CEO & Founder, Cannabis Compliance
Brian has been a passionate advocate for responsible regulation of health products since 2004 when he started NHP Consulting. Under his leadership, NHP Consulting has filed over 70,000 applications with health departments around the world. In 2007-2008 Brian was instrumental in advocating alongside with the Canadian Health Food Association for fair regulations of natural health products, and was a major contributor to the government’s proposal of revised policies. Since 2014, Brian has been very active in the cannabis compliance services industry, as one of the earliest consulting agencies created. In 2017, Cannabis Compliance Inc. was incorporated, and Brian has successfully grown the business, enabling CCI to establish itself as the global market leader in compliance
Andrea Mandel-Campbell
Senior Vice President, Financial and Crisis Communications, NATIONAL Public Relations
Andrea is Senior Vice-President, Financial and Crisis Communications at NATIONAL Public Relations. She provides an integrated service offering that combines deep investor relations experience with strategic communications, media relations and crisis and issues management.
Andrea was previously Senior Vice-President with New York-based global CEO advisory firm, Teneo, and Vice-President of Corporate Communications at Kinross Gold Corporation. A former correspondent for the Financial Times of London and BNN anchor, Andrea is author of the iconic Canadian business book, ‘Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson.’
