As a legal strategist and business operations partner for publicly traded companies and VC/PE-backed companies alike, I’ve spent my career helping visionaries found, build, and monetize pioneering new ideas—specializing in highly regulated cannabis, tobacco, and psychedelics, as well as agribusiness, biotech, consumer packaged goods, and healthcare.

During that time, I built and scaled five companies from early concept to fully operational concerns in high-margin industries, including an IPO and an exit—helping drive hundreds-of-millions in revenue through groundbreaking partnerships, product offerings, and distribution channels.

Along the way, I’ve been privileged to counsel more than twenty boards and five C-suites in the development of new ventures, value-creation strategies, and governance models, while navigating risk, opportunity, and change.

I’ve also structured and negotiated transactions up to $1.5 billion (e.g., M&A, equity and debt offerings, IPOs, joint ventures), closed and integrated 20+ acquisitions, built workforces of up to 1,100, and managed P&Ls up to $60 million.

As a regulatory advocate, I’ve secured one-of-a-kind governmental approvals and authorizations with the DEA, FDA, U.K., USDA and EFSA, as well as with states including Florida, Kentucky, New York, Texas, and Virginia. Regulatory compliance, registration, and filing experience includes the SEC, FTC, HHS, OSHA, and TTB.

With degrees in business, economics, and the law from Columbia University School of Law and Washington & Lee University, I currently hold memberships with the Food & Drug Law Institute and New York State Bar Association. Previously, I held memberships with the American Health Lawyers Association and Hemp Roundtable, and served as board director for Brooks Memorial Hospital in Dunkirk, NY, where I chaired the Corporate Governance & Nominating Committee.