NACB Advances Women’s Leadership Trend in Cannabis Industry

New York, NY (January 31, 2020) – With organizational restructuring at the National Association of Cannabis Businesses(NACB), women executives now hold six of the seven leadership roles. The NACBis advancing its mission to shape cannabis into a safe, responsible and ethical industry by creating national standards for packaging and labeling, lab testing and product integrity, advertising, security and other cannabis business operations.

The makeup of NACB’s women-led executive team mirrors a national trend in cannabis companies, where women hold 36.8% of leadership roles according Marijuana Business Daily data. Across the largest 1,000 companies in the U.S. by revenue, women hold just 6% of chief executive officer positions, according to a 2019 Korn Ferry study. The MBD research found gender diversity in executive roles in the cannabis industry far out paces the national average, which is 21.0% across U.S businesses.

“Gina Kranwinkel, CEO of the NACB, has assembled a leadership team that’s breaking new ground on several fronts,” saidAdrienne Uthe, VP of Sales and Marketing at NACB. “Not only is the NACB executive team more diverse than a large majority of those at the helm of U.S.business in most other sectors, the NACB is a leader in defining a prosperous, stable and safe future for the cannabis industry.”

“I am proud to work in an industry that cultivates diversity. We at the NACB believe in an ethical industry and having a diverse staff is another element of that,” said Kranwinkel, who is based in New York.

Led by Kranwinkel, the NACB team is

·      Adrienne Uthe, VP of Marketing and Sales, Salt LakeCity, UT

·      Tom Nolasco, Director of Legal and StrategicInitiatives, Phoenix, AZ

·      Meggan Hau, Operations Manager, Milwaukee, WI

·      Katia Baires, Digital Marketing Manager, Toronto,Canada

·      Ashley Manning, Director of Business Development, SanDiego, CA

·      Angela Zamora, Membership Liaison, San Diego, CA

“As an emerging industry, cannabis presents a unique opportunity for diversity in leadership,” said Uthe. “That opportunity is reflected in the diverse leadership of our member organizations, and they are stronger for it.”