NACB Advances Women’s Leadership Trend in the Cannabis Industry

A hot topic in today's cannabis is exploring the woman's experience within the industry - we're happy to have the representation that we do on our executive team.

With organizational restructuring at the National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB), women executives now hold six of the seven leadership roles. The NACB is 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 outpaces 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,” said Adrienne 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 Lake City, UT

·     Tom Nolasco, Director of Legal and Strategic Initiatives, Phoenix, AZ

·     Meggan Hau, Operations Manager, Milwaukee, WI

·     Katia Baires, Digital Marketing Manager, Toronto, Canada

·     Ashley Manning, Director of Business Development, San Diego, 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.”

About the National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB): The National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB) is the industry’s first and only self-regulatory organization, whose mission is to support the compliance, transparency and growth of legal cannabis businesses in the U.S.