Speakers

Presentation: Why Mexico is the Best Kept Secret in Wall Street?

Jorge S. Olson is a bestselling business author and globally recognized as an expert in beverages, branding and Mexico investment and mergers & acquisitions.

Author of 4 books including “The Unselfish Guide to Self Promotion” and “Build Your Beverage Empire”.  He’s been CEO, COO & VP of public and private companies for 15 years in the USA and Mexico and has appeared in Success, Forbes, WSJ, FOX, NBC, CNN, and ABC affiliates.

Jorge started his entrepreneurial career selling sodas on the Tijuana-San Diego international border at the age of 16 while growing up with no electricity or running water in Mexico. He now advises CEO’s, Entrepreneurs and the largest Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds and Investment Bankers around the world.

Jorge S. Olson has worked in Software, Consumer Goods and Wholesale Distribution companies and reaches more than 3 million people every single month with his blogs, podcasts and articles.

What to expect from his Mexico Investment Speech?

• The Best Kept Secret in Wall Street!
• Why is Mexico an opportunity?
• What are High Risk Merchants for CBD & Cannabis?
• History of Public & Private Equity in Mexico
• Fortune Businesses are already in Mexico
• Bose, Toyota, Sony, Ford, all made in Mexico

Founding Partner & Chief Investor

Morgan is the key navigator of the Fund, guiding Demeter Capital Group through the uncharted waters of the cannabis industry. With a degree in Applied Mathematics, Morgan uses a blend of instinct and innovation in crafting leading edge investment strategies for the portfolio he stewards.

For over four years, he held a position as an Investment Counselor with a privately owned Registered Investment Adviser. During that time, he successfully managed several high profile portfolios, constantly researching and selecting the most practical and productive investments. Morgan grew his portfolio oversight to more than $60 million in client assets during his tenure. In addition, Morgan has been critical to researching and implementing risk-adjusted investments and asset allocation strategies on his clients’ behalf.

Earlier, Morgan was a Financial Advisor Associate at UBS Financial Services in Providence, RI. At UBS, Morgan participated in a rotational program focused on building a strong wealth management and finance skill set and knowledge base. He was responsible for consulting Senior Management in selection of a new Wealth Management Team. He also trained on the municipal bond desk at UBS in New York City.

http://poseidonassetmanagement.com/

Founding Partner & Director of Relations

Emily spends her time analyzing the Cannabis marketplace and building relationships. With 10+ years of experience working as a brand consultant and researcher, her work has included primary and secondary marketplace research and consulting in a number of categories and industries. She consulted the rebranding of the IFC to increase viewership and revenue and to develop Emmy –nominated programming. Also, she worked with Comedy Central to regain and grow viewership. Emily’s clients have included McKinsey, Time Warner, Viacom, HBO, Participant Media, and Comcast.

For over six years, Emily has had an ongoing relationship consulting with American Express, both on their business and consumer sides. Her work with them has led to the development of a lifestyle/financial mobile app, the reshaping of their brand focus and messaging, and the creation of a host of new charge and lending products and instruments.

http://poseidonassetmanagement.com/

Early Stage Investor and Co-Founder of New York Angels

Alain Bankier is an active early stage investor, mentor and entrepreneur.  Alain invests in a variety of companies in the technology, food/tech, media/content, ad tech, and the legal cannabis space. He is an active advisor to the companies in which he invests and helps create substantial equity value. Alain is a board member/advisor/ mentor to a variety of companies and has been instrumental in achieving turnaround/restructuring and exit events for several of these businesses. Alain is the co-founder of the precursor of the New York Angels, one of the leading early stage investment groups in the US.

Until 2013, Alain was a shareholder and Co-President/CEO of The Manischewitz Company. In 2002, Alain co-founded the Saveur Food Group (SFG) to create, acquire and build branded food companies and, in 2008, Manischewitz was merged with SFG. The group’s strategy was to build value by acquiring companies that were in need of restructuring due to operational, branding or financial issues (and usually all three) and implementing an operational and financial “turn around” plan.

Prior to his career in the food industry, Alain was a founder of an international boutique investment bank, which he sold to BNPParibas in 1989 and where he remained as the Co-Head of Corporate Finance/Mergers and Acquisitions North Americas until 2001.

Alain has an MBA from NYU Stern and from HEC Paris, a Bachelor in Science from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

Managing Director – High Times Growth Fund

Ivan Wolff is a Managing Director of the High Times Growth Fund, affiliated with High Times Magazine and focused on investing in cannabis-related businesses.

Mr. Wolff formerly was Managing Director at Syzygy Therapeutics, a fund focused on purchasing later stage biopharmaceuticals, developing them to a financial inflection point, and selling them to big pharma.

He began his finance industry career at DLJ, now part of Credit Suisse, where he was a Vice President and Telecommunications Industry Analyst.  Mr. Wolff then moved to Rothschild Inc as a Managing Director and Partner in its venture capital activities.  He made investments in start-up high-technology firms including selected biotech opportunities, served on their boards of directors, and helped direct the achievement of liquidity through sale, strategic alliances or public offerings.  Prior to DLJ, he was a marketing and business development executive at Hughes Network Systems, M/A Com (now a Tyco Electronics business), and AT&T.

After leaving Rothschild, Mr. Wolff became an entrepreneur.  He founded, developed and, with his partners, sold BizTel, a wireless telecommunications company, to Teleport Communications (later acquired by AT&T).

Mr. Wolff received a B.A. in physics from Cornell University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Director of Corporate Finance, Dutchess Capital

Jessica has been with Dutchess Capital since 2009. She sources and analyzes new deal flow within the cannabis industry by connecting with entrepreneurs, online, internet websites and brick & mortar retailers, reviewing business plans and financials and presenting to the Dutchess Investment Committee. In addition, once funding is provided, Jessica works with portfolio companies to help scale their businesses by leveraging Dutchess’s network of connections and overall business expertise.

Dutchess Capital has been funding companies for 15 years. Based in Boston, MA, Dutchess made their first investment in the cannabis space in the summer of 2013. To date, they’ve invested in 18 cannabis-related opportunities and continue to look to grow their portfolio.

Partner – Bennett Jones LLP

Hugo Alves is a corporate and commercial lawyer who specializes in domestic and international commercial transactions. He has advised industry-leading Canadian and foreign clients in connection with private mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings, public procurements of goods and services, outsourcing transactions, information technology transactions, joint ventures and strategic alliances.

Hugo has significant venture capital and private equity experience, focusing primarily on technology and energy companies and is a trusted advisor to renewable energy developers, energy performance contractors, investment funds, asset managers and technology companies at every stage of their life cycle.

He is also one of Canada’s leading advisors in the medical marijuana industry created by Health Canada’s Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) representing a variety of industry participants, including licensed producers, licensed producer applicants, licensed dealers, research and development labs, e-commerce platforms, seed-to-sale software developers, design and build firms, patient aggregators, equipment manufacturers and distributors, and agritech companies. Hugo is also counsel to the Canadian Medical Cannabis Industry Association.

Hugo obtained his B.A. from Carleton University, where he won the Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement and his J.D. from the University of Toronto. He is fluent in Portuguese and is a member of the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce, where he acts as a Co-Chair of the BCCC’s Sustainability Committee. Hugo is an active member of the International Emissions Trading Association.

Co-Founder – New York Cannabis Alliance

Adam Scavone is the founder of Scavone Law Firm and a co-founder and director of the New York Cannabis Alliance.

He is a 2013 graduate of Brooklyn Law School, where he founded a chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and holds a Master in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

He has been leading the movement for a new, health-centered approach to cannabis policy for New York State since helping to found New York Patients First, a predecessor of the New York Cannabis Alliance, in January of 2010.

His writings on cannabis, health, criminal justice, and drug policy have been published in the Albany Times Union, Newsday, the Glens Falls Post-Star, the Los Angeles Times, the Denver Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Stanford University’s Social Innovation Review.

In law school, Adam spent time with Youth Represent, a youth criminal justice and employment advocacy project based in Manhattan, the Legal Aid Society’s Brooklyn office Criminal Defense Practice, and the Office of the Public Defender for Monterey County (California).

Before law school, he worked as a legal assistant at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York City, and as a program associate at the Center for Advanced Illness Coordinated Care in Albany, New York.

He also serves as secretary to the Committee on Drugs & the Law of the New York City Bar Association.