The Changing Face of Raising Money: From Equity to Debt & Convertible Debt

Samantha Gleit Related seminars and products: 1

Partner

Feuerstein Kulick LLP

Samantha Gleit is a partner at Feuerstein Kulick, focusing on debt and equity financing, corporate restructuring, alternative capital sources, acquisition financing, and related corporate transactions.  Throughout her career, Samantha has advised investors on distressed debt and collateralization in highly regulated industries.  She is known for implementing tailored, regulatory-compliant, loan and workout structures designed to maximize protection in the evolving cannabis legal landscape. Samantha also has extensive experience advising companies (ranging from startups to large public companies) on risk management, debt structuring, workouts, acquisition strategy, capitalization, and compliance. Beyond traditional legal advice, Samantha assists startups and growing companies identify liquidity sources, develop expansion strategies and negotiate efficient financing solutions. 

Tahira Rehmatullah, President Related seminars and products: 1

T3 Ventures

Tahira Rehmatullah is President of T3 Ventures, Partner at Highlands Venture Partners, and member of the board of directors for Akerna Corp., Ceres Acquisition Corp., and Superette. From brand building to hedge funds, Tahira has previously held positions at Hypur Ventures, MTech Acquisition Corp., Marley Natural, Privateer Holdings, City First Enterprises, Perry Capital, and Ernst & Young. She is an investor and advisor to numerous cannabis and hemp businesses and entrepreneurs. She also serves on the advisory board of The Initiative and the Last Prisoner Project, and is dedicated to developing female and minority leadership in the industry. Tahira earned her MBA from the Yale School of Management and B.S. in Finance from The Ohio State University. She resides in New York City.

Nicholas Vita Related seminars and products: 1

CEO

Columbia Care

Nick is the Co-Founder, CEO and Vice Chairman of Columbia Care, Inc. (“CC”).  Based in NYC and founded in 2012 to cultivate, manufacture, develop and distribute cannabis products to institutions and consumers, CC is one of the world’s largest, fully-integrated medical cannabis companies, licensed to operate in 17 US states and the EU. With product being sold from California to Germany, CC has over 1500 employees globally and a full portfolio of hemp derived OTC CBD products, adult use cannabis products and the leading pharmaceutical grade medical marijuana products – recommended by many of the most respected medical centers in the US.  With ongoing research initiatives across a number of therapeutic categories, CC collaborates with KOLs and scientists from world-renowned institutions such as Mount Sinai (data analytics), Columbia (opioid substitution study funded by NIH), Montefiore (opioid replacement and pain management), Harvard Medical School (pain management), The Center for Discovery (seizure disorders), Westmed (Rheumatoid conditions and Lupus) and King’s College London (Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar Disorders in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust).

Prior to founding Columbia Care, Nick was a Partner at Apelles Investment Management, LLC, a private investment management company focused on healthcare and privatized military infrastructure, a Partner and Healthcare Portfolio Manager at ARX Investment Management and worked in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Inc., as an Analyst, Associate and Vice President. Nick is a graduate of Columbia College, Columbia University where he was a member of the Men’s Varsity Heavyweight Crew Team and President of Saint Anthony Hall. 

In 2018 Nick was awarded a Tribeca Film Festival Disruptive Innovation Award for his efforts to combat the US opioid crisis. He has served as a guest lecturer at leading universities and corporate and philanthropic advisory boards including GenNext, Success Academy, Deerfield Club of New York, NY State Industrial Hemp Working Group and US Attorney’s (Eastern District, NY) Counterterrorism Working Group (Disruption and Early Engagement).  Nick currently resides in Greenwich, Connecticut with his family and is a Knight of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta.

Travis Moyer Related seminars and products: 1

Vice President

Curaleaf

Mr. Moyer serves as Vice President of Business Development at Curaleaf, and is responsible for a variety of activities meant to generate growth, including license applications, M&A, and JV relationships.  Before joining Curaleaf in August 2020, Mr. Moyer held the positions of Vice President of Legal and Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Grassroots Cannabis where he headed Grassroots’ legal, compliance, and new market teams during a multi-year period in which Grassroots grew from 100 to 1400 employees, growing into the largest privately held cannabis company in the United States.  Curaleaf recently purchased Grassroots for roughly $875mm and the resulting combination has made Curaleaf the largest cannabis company in the world.  

Mr. Moyer’s experience as both an experienced executive and corporate/regulatory attorney has enabled him to deftly navigate the increasingly complex world of legal cannabis in the United States.  Prior to entering the world of corporate cannabis, Mr. Moyer worked at the international law firm Vedder Price P.C. in its Chambers-ranked Investment Services practice group.

Mr. Moyer also currently serves on various non-profit committees and task forces, including with Growing Home and the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp.