Kellen O’Keefe
Mr. O’Keefe officially joined Flower One in July of 2019 as the Chief Strategy Officer, bringing over a decade of cannabis industry experience and a demonstrated history of success in fundraising, strategic partnerships and brand development. Prior to joining Flower One, Mr. O’Keefe was an early partner and the Senior Vice President of Business Development at MedMen where he played an instrumental role in capitalizing and growing the business into one of the industry’s first national brands. Mr. O’Keefe has advised and worked closely with some of the industry’s most iconic brands such as Cookies, Old Pal, Lift Ticket’s, GPen, Nature’s Lab, and more. In his first two years at Flower One, Mr. O’Keefe has completely re-built the companies brand partner program and implemented a number of key operational improvements resulting in dramatic increases to product quality, pricing, and overall operating efficiencies. In addition, Mr. O’Keefe leads all the Company fundraising efforts and also conducted the successful restructuring transaction that took place in early 2021.
Nitin Kaushal
Mr. Kaushal has over 30 years of expertise in the cannabis, life sciences and healthcare markets in addition to serving on the audit, governance, and compensation committees for more than a dozen U.S. and Canadian-listed public companies. Mr. Kaushal has spent the past eight years as a Managing Director for PwC’s Corporate Finance practice in Toronto. Mr. Kaushal has held senior roles in investment banking, venture capital and consulting firms including, Desjardins Securities, Orion Securities, Vengate Capital Partners, HSBC Securities, Gordon Capital and MDS Capital Corp. Mr. Kaushal currently sits on the Board of Directors for several other publicly traded cannabis companies including Delta Nine Cannabis Inc., The Valens Company and High Tide Inc., along with several biotech and healthcare industry companies. He earned his BSc in Chemistry from the University of Toronto, is a Chartered Accountant and holds his CF Corporate Finance Qualification.
Mitchell Kahn
Mr. Kahn brings with him more than 20 years of senior executive experience in area including cannabis and real estate. Mr. Kahn co-founded Grassroots Cannabis, the largest private vertically integrated multi-state operator in the United States at the time of its sale to Curaleaf for approximately $830,000,000. He currently serves as board of director at Curaleaf and is Principal and CEO of Frontline Real Estate Partners, for which he is also a Founder, and previously served as President and CEO of Hilco Real Estate. Mr. Kahn is a CPA, as well as an attorney who formerly practiced real estate law. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, School of Business and Northwestern University, School of Law.
Eliza Gairard
Mrs. Gairard is a Partner at Richmond Hill Investments, an investment management firm located in New York City that opportunistically deploys capital across a wide variety of industries and asset classes. Richmond Hill is the capital partner to Mammoth Distribution, California’s leading cannabis distribution platform and owner of an iconic cannabis brand portfolio including Heavy Hitters, Almora Farms and Lift Tickets, where Mrs. Gairard serves as an Observer on the Board of Directors. Prior to joining Richmond Hill in 2010, Mrs. Gairard spent several years at Wand Partners, a private equity firm with a focus on specialty financial services, where she was involved in all aspects of the deal process. Mrs. Gairard began her career in private equity as an Associate in the Aerospace & Defense Group at The Carlyle Group and, prior to Carlyle, she worked in investment banking at Greenhill & Co. Mrs. Gairard holds an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and graduated magna cum laudefrom Colby College with a B.A. in Economics with a concentration in financial markets.
Salpy Boyajian
Ms. Boyajian officially joined Flower One in October of 2018 following the acquisition of NLV Organics, which she co-founded in 2014. She currently serves as Flower One’s Executive Vice President and was one of the original winning applicants granted cannabis licenses by the State of Nevada. Ms.Boyajian is an established member of the Nevada cannabis industry and well respected as one of the top female founders in cannabis with extensive relationships across the industry. A serial entrepreneur and business operator, Ms. Boyajian received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from USC, and then went on to Pepperdine University where she earned a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and a second Master’s degree from the School of Law in Dispute Resolution. She has held her license as a Marriage and Family Therapist since 1996.
