Wednesday, October 17, 2018

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM - Herscher Hall - Guerin B

The Cannabis/CBD Technology Innovators: Science - Medicine - Investment

Julie Raque, Vice President of Marketing, Cannabistry Labs

Robert Schubring, Co-Founder, Give Pain a Voice

Cameron Keluche, President and CEO, KelSie Biotech

Elizabeth Ashford Davis, Principal, CERES Strategies

Matthew Nordgren, CEO and Founder, ARCADIAN Fund and ARCADIAN Capital Management

David Traub, Global Ambassador, Unify.Earth, Moderator

Matthew Nordgren, CEO and Founder, ARCADIAN Fund and ARCADIAN Capital Management: Matthew Nordgren is an ambitious executive, dedicated philanthropist, and accomplished athlete who brings a unique passion to creating strategic alliances. He has breadth and depth of experience in finance, corporate development, and capital sourcing, as well as in building highly motivated teams of skilled professionals. In 2005, Mr. Nordgren received his education at the University of Texas in Austin, while playing football for the Texas Longhorns football team.  As a quarterback on a National Championship winning team, he developed skills that would be carried through his lifetime and core business philosophies. He was the first full scholarship in the NCAA University of Texas football history to graduate with two degrees in less than four years and being accepted into and pursuing a dual Master’s Degree program. After playing professionally briefly with the Detroit Lions and

Philadelphia Eagles (where he was sidelined with injury), Mr. Nordgren went on to earn two Master’s degrees in business and sports management from the University of Dallas. He was subsequently featured on the Bravo TV show “Most Eligible Dallas,” while becoming a partner in the family business, NORDCO, Inc., a Dallas-based energy conservation firm.  This is also when he helped to develop, manage and build his first private equity business/family office, which was a sports and entertainment focused portfolio. Throughout his career, Mr. Nordgren has been appointed to many executive leadership positions at a wide-ranging group of companies and industries. From real estate to sports and entertainment, from hospitality to insurance and financial services, from emerging industries to later stage leveraged buy outs, he is singularly focused on finding synergistic opportunities that have upside potential.  He is committed to successfully helping manage the overall financial state of his clients’ businesses and the companies with which he and his clients have interests within. Mr. Nordgren is currently CEO and Founder of ARCADIAN Fund and ARCADIAN Capital management, a venture fund focused on the ancillary service providing companies in and around the cannabis and hemp industries.  More specifically, on Series A type opportunities where proven businesses are looking for growth equity to attack and win new markets.  He was recently name one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in the Cannabis Industry” by High Times Magazine. Additionally, he is the founder of NORDCO Consulting LLC, a private equity firm dedicated to buying and selling middle market companies with forward-thinking vision. To date, Mr. Nordgren has personally managed over $7 billion in transactions and maintains a portfolio of approximately 25 companies. Inspired by his belief that education and athletics can open doors for at-risk youth, Mr. Nordgren founded The Leadership Foundation—an organization committed to giving back to non-profits whose purpose is to empower youth through sports and education. He feels strongly that young people, regardless of their personal circumstances, should have the opportunity for a bright future and the chance to make a positive impact.  Furthermore, he is involved with and contributes to numerous philanthropic causes and remains dedicated to giving back and making a difference.

Julie Raque is the Vice President of Marketing at Cannabistry Labs where she is responsible for developing and implementing the company’s marketing and communications strategies. She has over ten years of marketing experience at both established and emerging pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Horizon Pharma, GILEAD Sciences and Avexis Pharmaceuticals. Raque is an expert in developing and executing go-to-market plans; leading product launches in highly regulated industries; and overseeing the development, management, maintenance, distribution and product application in both domestic and international markets. Raque earned her master’s degree in pharmacology from University of Cincinnati, and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of Kentucky. Cannabistry Labs is a pioneer in developing and licensing innovative products and revolutionary brands for the multi-billion-dollar legalized cannabis industry. Its team of scientists, engineers and production specialists work collaboratively to research, develop and formulate a diverse array of product offerings. Through an exclusive licensing program, Cannabistry Labs helps empower partners’ operations to produce and market demonstrably better products and uniquely compelling brands.

Elizabeth Ashford Davis, Principal, CERES Strategies: Elizabeth Ashford is among California’s most experienced and respected public affairs professionals. She spent seven years at the highest levels of state government, serving as Attorney General Kamala Harris’ Chief of Staff, Governor Jerry Brown’s Chief Deputy Press Secretary and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Chief Deputy for Cabinet and Communications. As a key advisor to high-profile elected officials, she is both a policy and communications expert. She also brings extensive experience in the private sector — serving as a senior advisor to Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 businesses in the U.S. and London — and understands the rulebooks that companies must follow to remain compliant and competitive.  Elizabeth sits on the executive board of the Los Angeles Cannabis Task Force, and was recently appointed to the California Highway Patrol’s Impaired Driving Task Force. She holds a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a master’s degree from Columbia University.

Robert "Bob" Schubring, Co-Founder, Give Pain a Voice (GPAV): Film producer, cannabinoid delivery system inventor and investor Bob Schubring co-founded Give  Pain a Voice, a Toronto-based nonprofit that teaches chronic pain sufferers the skills of self-advocacy. The first of Bob's three productions, the John Holowach documentary HIGH: The True Tale of American Marijuana, sparked Bob's interest in the plight of chronic pain patients. He determined that US policy viewed pain relief as a kind of luxury or privilege, rather than as a medical necessity and found this trend troubling.  Bob, who has a chemistry and engineering background and was already working a number of legal cases involving product failure, sought to do something about it.  He chose the media side, teamed with Canadian documentary director Tina Petrova and co-produced her forthcoming film, Pain Warriors, which explores the divisive effects that miscommunication about pain exert upon families and society at large.  Bob has appreciable experience in chemistry and chemical analysis. He interned under Dr Jerome Horwitz, discoverer of the antiviral drug AZT, and later collaborated with Dr Daniel Klempner on an EPA-funded research project to recycle plastics, both in Detroit.  For the past year he has engaged in research and technical writing for The Alliance for Treatment of Intractable Pain, and submitted a research report to the FDA, Evidence-Based Policymaking: What's Absent from the Opioid Crisis.  Bob's other film productions are Twist, director Ochir Mashbat's biopic on noted Mongolian contortionist and coach Angelique Erdenechimeg, and Saraya's Universe, a sci-fi narrative short directed by Christopher P. Fure. Bob recently invented and is patenting an improved delivery system for the cannabinoid nerve protection agent invented by HHS scientists Hampson, Axelrod and Grimaldi (their US Patent 6,630,507) that promises to reduce the harm of Alzheimer's disease and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Cameron Keluche, President and CEO, KelSie Biotech: Cameron Keluche has provided Economic Modeling, Business Plan Development and Management Services to numerous Technology based enterprises. Prior to founding KelSie, he directed the development and implementation of a proprietary Big-Data Cloud based Platform and Management Information Systems, including Supervisory Controls and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems, for the management of natural resources valued in the Billions. In addition, he has conducted market research and provided analytical, business planning, feasibility impact studies, economic modeling and management services ranging from large scale community developments and environmental assessments to the management of commercial property portfolios valued in excess of $500 Million. Mr. Keluche is a graduate of the University of Denver with a B.A. Degree in Cognitive Neuroscience with course work in Business Administration at Wake Forest University, and continues his activities in the development and management of new technology based enterprises in the health care industry.

David Traub, Global Ambassador, Unify.Earth: David earned a Masters in Education in 1990 from Harvard University, while conducting simultaneous class-work in interactive cinema and AI-based narrative at the MIT Media Lab.  HIs master thesis: design of the world's first virtual reality simulation game modeling family therapy. In 1984 he earned his undergraduate degrees in rhetoric and film with honors from the University of California at Berkeley, concluding with an honor thesis focusing on the use of film and television as "educational propaganda."  His primary focus: the aggregation and delivery of "social and emotional" and other learning-centric applications/content via feature films, TV, mobile phones, video games, thin clients/PCs and VR/AR.  In the real world, David has 20-years of experience as a digital media-oriented executive producer, entrepreneur, investor, venture catalyst, global business development executive, ind/or board member to over 40 startups/private equity companies. He has co-raised and deployed nearly $30 million dollars in support of these ventures. His most recent feature film as executive producer was JOBS, starring Ashton Kutcher;  with Bronx Bull his next movie to market (co-producer), and multiple others feature films and TV shows in  development.  David has created games, apps and other content as a co-founder,  executive and/or executive producer of digital products across a wide variety of clients such as EMI North America, MCA Records, Philips/Polydor, Microsoft/ MSN, Apple Computer and many others. He is also an author of nearly 50 articles and reports on the evolution of the digital domain for trade publications, professional books and institutional clients; and a speaker who has given nearly 50 forward-looking keynote and other speeches throughout the world for clients such as the EU, the Swedish and Canadian Governments, TV Globo (Brazil), the National Institute of Film in Denmark, Viacom, US West, Mercedes/Siebold, The Broadband Content Development Forum and numerous other economic development agencies and universities.