2022 Will Be Another Milestone For Female Leadership In Cannabis Industry

The cannabis investment community, which is small but powerful, is propelling expansion by providing capital to companies across the supply chain to scale up ahead of legalization. Advanced Flower Capital has positioned itself as a major source of institutional loans and one of the largest Nasdaq-listed cannabis lenders since its inception in 2020. Robyn Tannenbaum, AFC’s Partner and Head of Origination and Investor Relations, is responsible for a large portion of the $9.4 billion in deals sourced by the real estate investment trust. The AFC’s highly selective vetting process, in which only a small number of potential deals have been funded, not only demonstrates to wary institutional investors that today’s cannabis funds are more judicious and strategic in their capital deployment, but it also boosts the industry’s legitimacy for future mainstream investors.

Only Trulieve is led by a female CEO among the top ten multi-state operators. After completing its Harvest Health & Recreation acquisition in October 2021, Trulieve became the largest and most successful operator under Kim Rivers’ leadership. Rivers, a member of Trulieve’s founding team, pioneered the company’s “hub” model, which was critical to the company’s success in expanding into new countries. While Rivers is well-known for her business and legal expertise, she is also regarded as a hands-on leader who frequently seeks feedback from employees on the ground and rallies teams to work toward a single objective.

DEI is being kept in the spotlight by female leaders

Female and minority involvement percentages are low in the cannabis industry, and female entrepreneurs are addressing these apparent discrepancies through their own enterprises. Amber Senter is working in California to create an ecosystem that will enable black business owners to become self-sufficient industry shareholders. She has worked with Oakland lawmakers to build the country’s first cannabis social equity program and coached hundreds of budding entrepreneurs through her own ventures, which include distribution platforms MAKR House, SuperNova Women, and EquityWorks! Incubator.

Dina Rollman, SVP of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Green Thumb Industries, was also instrumental in the company’s proactive commitment to CSR and community involvement. She assisted in the development of Green Thumb’s License Education Application Program, or LEAP, after recognizing the barriers that people of color experienced during the early stages of the Illinois licensing process. In Illinois, where minority presence in cannabis firms is still low, the program helps candidates.

Female customers are the industry’s lifeblood

Men have traditionally been the most desirable cannabis consumer demographic, but younger women are gradually gaining pace. According to a recent survey by Headset, Gen Z women are now the fastest-growing legal cannabis consumers, with sales up 151 percent year over year. Companies must reassess their product R&D and marketing tactics as more female consumers engage with the sector, in order to better serve this demographic’s preferences.

As a result, established players will need to rely on the skills of a varied group of female leaders to come up with new approaches to target female audiences. Today’s socially conscious consumers are more likely to support firms that share their values and identities, which includes more women in leadership positions who enable companies to create genuine relationships with customers rather than simply catering to them.

Female CEOs of today have shown the rest of the business world that they have the talents and insight to make strategic decisions that benefit their firms and communities. Their ability to outperform industry expectations demonstrates how far the industry can progress if more talented women join the fold. These executives are incentivizing skeptics to invest in more women while pushing potential female leaders to take the plunge. Without women leading the charge, the cannabis business will never attain its full potential.

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