British American Tobacco and Monsanto enter Marijuana market MONTRAL, April 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - LGC Capital Ltd. (LG) (otcqb:LGGCF) ("LGC")
LGC CAPITAL announces four new additions to the executive team. LGC Chief Operating Officer, Remy di Meglio, together with both John McMullen and Mazen Haddad, has assembled this team bringing over 90 year's experience with British American Tobacco and Monsanto to LGC. To lead the team, Mazen Haddad will remain as Co-Chairman and take on the additional role of CEO. John McMullen will assume the role as President and Mark Shinners of Arlington Capital will take on the role of CFO. We would like to thank the outgoing CFO Anthony Samaha for his years of service to LGC helping to grow LGC.
Mazen Haddad stated, "The new additions to our team at LGC have already begun to work on integrating LGC's investments to extract the economies of scale due to geographic diversity and mobilizing a full product range to serve our customers throughout Europe, Canada and Australia. This team brings over 90 years of experience from leading global companies like British American Tobacco, Monsanto, WPP and CNN. With a keen understanding of how to grow and handle global supply chains and distribution on a large scale, brand building and consumer intelligence, regulatory legislation and financial governance, they will bring the discipline and rigor required to build LGC into a leading player in the cannabis market. John McMullen will move into the role of President focusing his efforts on various part of LGC's corporate development and working with our banking partners and developing LGC's public investor base."
Richard Widmann 51, EVP Commercial, joins LGC with over 15 years of experience across 4 continents with British American Tobacco (BAT) business operations in Europe and South Africa and Americas most recently serving as Area Managing Director South Central Europe, a top 5 market for BAT. In this role, Richard achieved in excess of 250 million Euros in profit, managed major acquisitions in Central Europe and realized significant brand growth in South Africa. Richard will lead the commercial strategy and build-up of a pan European Hemp/Cannabis enterprise. He will also provide operational direction and will provide and oversight to LGC's partners. Currently he has been assigned to further develop Easyjoint's distribution and corporate development to stay on track for its growth plans.
Mervyn Koenen 44 , VP Commercial Finance, brings 18 years of managing commercial finance, internal audit and strategic planning, supporting leadership teams to achieve operational targets and managing strategic agendas. His experience includes international, strategic and multi-disciplinary projects resulting in delivering sustainable profit growth. Mervyn will drive the financial and strategic agenda for LGC's European investees in the expanding market for legal cannabis and CBD derivative products. He will support LGC partners in building sustainable and reliable financial forecasts, lead corporate governance, with procedural performance tracking, and build accounting and supply chain systems to assist subsidiaries with growth demands.
Jeanne van Wyk 50 , VP Communications, brings 26 years of global marketing experience on both client and agency side, most recently as Strategic Planning Director for the WPP advertising group servicing British American Tobacco across Europe. Jeanne has a background in legal studies followed by a successful career in journalism, notably with CNN in Africa & Global for 5 years. Jeanne will design and manage the strategic development and positioning of our brand portfolios, marketing, communications and consumer insights for LGC starting with EasyJoint.
Alistair Hide 51, VP Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, joins LGC with over 25 years of business experience and corporate regulatory affairs. For the last 5 years, he held the position of Corporate Affairs Director, Europe, Middle East, and Africa with Monsanto International. This role encompassed government affairs, communications and wider stakeholder relations for Monsanto's agricultural businesses. He also brings over 18 years of experience with BAT, most recently as Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, Western Europe Region. Alistair will be navigating the ever changing regulations of this new and evolving industry, allowing LGC to understand the legal requirements and directing LGC to ensure its products are compliant with all regulations in the various markets. In his corporate communications capacity, he will work with regulators to develop a sustainable industry framework.
Mark Shinners, 41, Chief Financial Officer, joins LGC with over 17 year's experience in various senior operational and financial advisory roles spanning across a number of industry sectors including IT, construction, renewable energy and manufacturing. Having trained as a chartered accountant at PwC, Mark went on to hold leadership positions in assurance, corporate finance and financial advisory, providing financial, commercial and strategic advice to multinational companies. Mark served as financial director at Hewlett Packard (Services) in the Middle East and CFO at Chinook Urban Mining Limited, a UK based renewable energy development company. Mark is currently a Director at Arlington Capital. Mark is a Chartered Accountant (ACA), has a Bachelor of Business Studies degree (BBS), a Masters in Accounting & Finance (Macc), a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and is a Chartered Waste Manager.
Mazen Haddad 46, CEO brings over 20 years of experience building companies from the early stage, most of his experience has been in the venture capital space ranging from technology companies both in the US and Canada to real estate and mining. Furthermore, his family business relationships have brought the association of former BAT executives to LGC.
"At the request of our new investors, Arlington Capital, I am proud to take on this new role of direct management of LGC now that we have acquired our core positions in the companies such Trichomed, Global Canna Labs, Evolution and Little Green Pharma, LGC has formidable growing capacity and a diversity of strains and licensed operators that few other companies have. Furthermore, the associations with Easyjoint and Viridi bring both a wide ranging catalog of finished products from consumables to cosmetics and the serious ability to distribute such products through Easyjoint's retail and online presence. We will continue to seek companies with finished products that give consumers access to wellness products they demand. It is my sincere belief that both with Arlington Capital`s support and our newly added operating team LGC will be able to accelerate the development of our portfolio of companies and integrate their efforts to achieve their full potential."
About LGC Capital:
Through its partners and assuming pending transactions under review by the TSXV are approved, LGC presently will have interests in over 450,000 square feet of planted cannabis in Jamaica, Switzerland, Italy, and Australia. That is expected to increase to over 2,100,000 square feet by 2021, as its portfolio companies execute their expansion plans, in addition to the anticipated licensing of Tricho-Med's operations in Quebec, Canada.
LGC partners currently sell cannabis products in over 1,000 points of sale across Switzerland and Italy under the ONE Premium Cannabis and EasyJoint brands as well as medical cannabis oils in Australia under the Little Green Pharma brand. LGC's partners' branded products are available in a variety of formats including dry cannabis flower, tinctures, oils, seeds, and beverages.
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