MJBizMag January 2021 - 69

agency will be called the Department
of Cannabis Control.
Curaleaf CEO Change
Marijuana multistate operator
Curaleaf Holdings announced that
Joseph Bayern, who joined the
Massachusetts-based company in
December 2019, will replace Joseph
Lusardi as CEO effective Jan. 1.
Bayern previously served as
president of Indus Holdings, a vertically
integrated cannabis company in
California, and he has management
and operations experience with Dr.
Pepper Snapple Group and Cadbury.
Lusardi, who guided Curaleaf from a
single medical cannabis dispensary
in New Jersey to an MSO with
operations in 23 states, will become
the company's executive vice chair of
the board.
Boris Jordan, Curaleaf's executive
chair and one of its prime financial
backers, characterized Bayern as an
" outstanding leader with a proven track
record of success. "
Leadership Change at PharmaCielo
PharmaCielo, a Toronto-based
company that operates mainly in
South America, announced that
Henning von Koss, previously the
company's president and director, took
over as CEO on Dec. 1. PharmaCielo
announced in a news release that
it reached a mutual agreement with
David Attard and he would step down
as chief executive officer and board
member. Attard is being retained by
the company in a consultancy capacity,
a spokesperson said.
MediPharm Replaces Top Execs
MediPharm Labs, a Barrie, Ontariobased
extraction and manufacturing
business, announced leadership
changes intended to take the
company to its next level of growth,
executives said.
At the CEO post, Pat McCutcheon,
who joined MediPharm in 2017
after a career spent largely in the
pharmaceutical sector, stepped
down but retained his role as board
chair. Keith Strachan, MediPharm
co-founder and president, succeeds
McCutcheon as interim CEO. Strachan
continues to serve as co-owner of
Scoops and Cones, a seasonal ice
cream company in Barrie.
Olga Utkutug was appointed interim
chief financial officer effective Dec. 8.
Utkutug had been MediPharm's
director of finance since February 2019
and, before that, held senior finance
posts with Cisco, General Electric and
PricewaterhouseCoopers. She replaces
Bobby Kwon, who left the company for
family reasons in November, one year
after taking the position.
with the American Herbal Products
Association, also in DC.
Common Citizen
Welcomes CFO
Common Citizen,
a Marshall,
Michigan-based
cannabis product
maker, announced
that veteran Chief Financial Officer
Brian Smith joined the company as
CFO. Smith most recently served as
vice president and corporate finance
leader at Stanley Black & Decker,
where he worked closely with the
company's executive leadership to
transform their manufacturing, supplychain,
pricing, planning and global
marketing strategies. He also has held
financial posts at General Motors,
Pfizer
and Walmart.
At Common Citizen, Smith is tasked
with developing internal controls
for financing and building up the
company's brand.
Minority Cannabis Business
Association Appoints New
Executive Director
The Minority Cannabis Business
Association installed Amber
Littlejohn as its executive director.
Littlejohn, an attorney, joined the
group in April 2019 as a senior policy
adviser. In that role, she helped
develop the group's federal policy
program. In her new role, Littlejohn is
tasked with leading the growth and
expansion of the MCBA and its policy
and programming initiatives.
Littlejohn is also director of the
U.S. Hemp Authority, a post she's held
since July. Littlejohn has also worked
as an attorney with the Watts Group in
Washington DC and as a government
and regulatory affairs consultant
Former Columbian Finance Minister
Joins Khiron Board of Directors
Khiron Life Sciences, a vertically
integrated cannabis company based
in Toronto with core operations in
Latin America and Europe, appointed
Carlos Echeverry to the company's
board of directors.
From 2015 to 2017, Echeverry
served as CEO and president of
Ecopetrol, Colombia's largest
corporation and the fourth-largest
Latin American oil and gas producer
included in the Fortune Global 500.
Echeverry was Colombia's minister of
finance from 2010 to 2012, served
as the nation's minister of economic
planning from 2000 to 2002 and
represented Colombia before the InterAmerican
Development Bank.
Echeverry is also a founding
partner of EConcept, a Bogotá-based
consultancy, and partner of Global
Source, a New York-based consultancy
January 2021 | mjbizdaily.com 69
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MJBizMag January 2021

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