MJBiz - September/October 2024 - 53

INDUSTRY PLAYERS
An Illinois resident, Krane is an
industry pioneer and advocate
who co-founded 4Front in 2011.
He left the company in 2021 to
lead the cannabis section at
KCSA Strategic Communications,
a public relations firm in New
York, where he still works part
time. Krane returned to 4Front as
a board member in March 2023.
Krane also leads his own
cannabis consulting firm,
Kranewreck Consulting, and nine
months ago he became president
of Happy Valley Genetics in
Gloucester, Massachusetts. He
also has served as associate
director of the National
Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws (NORML),
executive director of Students for
Sensible Drug Policy and board
chair emeritus of the National
Cannabis Industry Association.
MPP Appoints
New Board Members
The Marijuana
Policy Project
(MPP), a
cannabis
policy reform
organization,
appointed
new members
to its board
of directors.
The new board chair is Betty
Aldworth, who has been
director of communications and
post-prohibition strategy at the
Multidisciplinary Association for
Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) since
July 2020.
Aldworth joined MAPS after
spending almost seven years as
executive director of Students
for Sensible Drug Policy. In 2019
and 2020, Aldworth served on the
board of directors of 4Front Ventures
Corp., a company founded
by another former executive
Betty Aldworth
director of Students for Sensible
Drug Policy, Kris Krane.
Aldworth also has been deputy
director of the National Cannabis
Industry Association, advocacy
director for the Colorado Campaign
to Regulate Marijuana Like
Alcohol and community relations
director at Colorado Dispensary
Services, among other cannabis
and non-cannabis positions.
In a news release, the MPP
described Aldworth as a " pioneer "
who " has dedicated her
career to building a more sensible
future through reforming
drug policies to be rooted in
safety, justice, and education. "
David Abernathy, who has
served as principal for Arcview
Management Consulting for
nearly five years, is MPP's new
vice chair. Abernathy has been
on the organization's board since
2021; in May 2024, he became
chief operating officer at Delphi,
a psychedelics consulting firm.
Abernathy also serves on the
board of the Minority Cannabis
Business Association, and he is
on the faculty and board of Oaksterdam
University.
Brian Vicente, founding partner
of Denver-based Vicente law
firm, was elected board treasurer.
Vicente has been a leader in the
marijuana-legalization movement
for more than 20 years and
has worked closely with MPP in
various capacities, including as
one of the authors of Colorado's
Amendment 64.
Former Regulators Join
Standards Group
S3 Collective, a national
nonprofit organization working
to harmonize and advance
cannabis industry standards,
appointed two former state
marijuana regulators to its
inaugural Governmental Advisory
Committee: Tyler Klimas and
Christina Dempsey.
Klimas is the principal of Lead
Street Strategies, a marijuana
and hemp consulting firm he
founded in Las Vegas last year.
His involvement with cannabis
began in October 2019 as a deputy
director in the Nevada Department
of Taxation, where he led a
team that transitioned regulatory
oversight of the state's regulated
marijuana program from the tax
department to the Nevada Cannabis
Compliance Board.
In January 2020, Klimas was
appointed executive director of
the compliance board, where
he worked for four years. He
also helped found the Cannabis
Regulators Association in
November 2020, serving as
treasurer and president.
Before cannabis, Klimas'
posts included communications
director for Nevada Gov. Brian
Sandoval and the state's chief
lobbyist in Washington, D.C.
Dempsey is executive director
of the Cannabis Policy Lab
in California, a nonpartisan
policy and educational group
that she started in August
2023. She started the Cannabis
Policy Lab after two years with
the California Department of
Cannabis Control, where she was
hired in July 2021 and ultimately
served as deputy policy and
research director.
Before that, Dempsey spent
almost four years with the
California Department of Public
Health, where her cannabis posts
included chief of policy and
outreach as well as education,
training and outreach manager.
Former VidaCann CEO
Joins Planet 13 Board
Planet 13 Holdings, a vertically
integrated multistate marijuana
mjbizdaily.com | September-October 2024 53
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