Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-07-22)

◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek July 22, 2019

20

executives in Colorado were women, but two

years later that had dropped to 27%, according to

Marijuana Business Daily. Some in the industry fear

thesamelackofdiversitythat’scharacterized such

sectorsasfinanceandtechnologywillbecomethe

normforthefast­growingpotworld.

“It’sthedouble­edged sword of capitalism,” says

Fahed Sultan Al Essa, a graduate student at the

University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of

Business who’s researching the cannabis industry

and hosted an inaugural summit on gender diver­

sity in the sector earlier this year. “As the industry

gets more and more appealing, more money comes

in and sexism comes in.” Women in the industry

interviewed by Bloomberg say they’ve experienced

sexism, from being told to dress in heels and a skirt

for a meeting with investors to being asked when

they plan to have children and having questions

redirected to male colleagues.

Among the 20 most valuable publicly traded

cannabis companies in the U.S. and Canada, there

are only two female chief executive officers and not

a single chief financial officer. There’s also a notice­

able lack of women on boards: At those same busi­

nesses, just 13% of board members are women,

compared with about 31% for the top 20 banks. Six

of the top marijuana companies have no female

board members. “The boards are mostly made up

ofoldwhiteguys,”saysJeannetteVanderMarel,

whofoundedGreenOrganicDutchman,a Canadian

potcompanyworthmorethan$600million,and

is nowco­CEOofToronto­based 48North Cannabis

Corp. “A glass ceiling certainly already exists.”

Canopy Growth Corp., the world’s most valu­

able cannabis company, has only one woman on

itsboard.Boostingdiversityis partofthemandate

ofHilaryBlack,anindustryveteranwhojoined

theOntario­based company in 2015 and became

chief advocacy officer earlier this year. She says the

dearth of women and minorities is a result of the

nascent industry’s focus on growth. “When peo­

ple criticize Canopy and the industry for the lack of

diversity, it’s important to understand that it’s not

something that happened consciously,” she says.

“It’s not like there was a group of men sitting in

a boardroom stroking their beards going, ‘Hmm,

how are we going keep all the ladies out of this?’

It’s a matter of how fast everything grew.”

Weed was dominated by men when it was strictly

a black market business; as the legal industry has

evolved, some of that gender imbalance has lin­

gered.Somepotcompanies,includingonesrun

bywomen,aretryingtomakethebusinessmore

female­friendly, with executives frequently talking

about pulling in customers from outside the base

THEBOTTOMLINE Thenascentpotindustrywasexpectedto

befemale-friendly.Butthetop20 cannabis companies include just

two female CEOs and few women directors.

ofstonerdudes,whobuythelion’sshareofweed.

But evenwiththe focuson soccermomsand

professional women looking to swap chardonnay

for a vape pen, there are still concerns that female

founders and executives are getting pushed aside.

“I’ve watched one woman after another take in

sometypeofcapitalorpartnershipdealforherbusi­

ness,andnextthingyouknowshe’snolongerthe

CEO,”saysJessicaBillingsley,co­founder and CEO

of Akerna Corp., which provides consulting services

● Share of women on

boards, by industry*

BankingApparel

Tech

Cannabis

31% 29%

22%

13%

andcompliancesoftwaretothecannabisindustry.It

recentlybecamethefirstfemale­led cannabis busi­

ness to list on Nasdaq. “It’s a discouraging trend.”

VanderMarel says that’s pretty much what hap­

pened to her. She lost her daughter to Dravet syn­

drome, a rare form of epilepsy, and became an

advocate for medical access to cannabis after seeing

a mom use it to help boost her son’s appetite during

chemotherapy.Sheandherhusbandbuiltanindoor

potfarmandfoundedGreenOrganicDutchmanin

2012.Afterit wona sought­after Canadian license

to produce weed in 2016, as legalization for recre­

ational use approached, venture capitalists became

controllingshareholdersandeventuallyinstalleda

CEO.VanderMarelsaysshedecidedtoleaveafter

herresponsibilitieswerecuttoa part­time role.

Now she shares the CEO role with Alison Gordon

at48North,whichhasthreefemaleboardmem­

bers.WhileVanderMarelishopefulcorporate

cannabis can turn the tide on its gender problem,

she acknowledges it will be difficult. “It’s an uphill

battle,” she says. “It takes years to change boards.”

�Ellen Milligan, Kristine Owram, and Jordyn

Holman, with Sam Unsted