Marc Geen, Founder
A proud 4th-generation BC farmer, Marc Geen has been active in the legal medical marijuana industry for more than 10 years, consulting, complying with, and participating in the MMAR, MMPR, and ACMPR programs. Prior to co-founding Speakeasy Cannabis Club Ltd., Marc spent 17 years as Head of Operations for Kettle Mountain Ginseng Ltd, one of North Americas largest ginseng producers. The experience gleaned from a long career in large scale commercial farming, Mr. Geen has been able to apply many cost effective, good farming practices to the outdoor, indoor, and greenhouse cultivation of cannabis. Mr. Geen is also the co-creator of a full line of cannabis extract products designed under ACMPR regulations.
Malcolm Davidson, CPA, CA, CEO
Mr. Davidson is a career CFO and with more than 17 years of professional accounting and finance experience. Over the past year, Mr. Davidson has been the CFO for publicly traded cannabis companies. Prior to this, much of his experience has been providing CFO services to producing publicly traded mining companies that trade on the TSX and NYSE. In addition to financial reporting, Malcolm brings a wealth of knowledge to directing the regulatory and compliance environment for the Company but also works closely with the executive team to ensure that It meets Its short and long term objectives. As a seasoned professional accountant, Malcolm looks forward to bringing his tax, finance, and assurance skillset to SpeakEasy.
Charles Williams, Ph.D., Director
Dr. Williams obtained a Ph.D. from McGill university in organic chemistry and thus brings a unique perspective to any question. Dr. Williams brings extensive regulatory experience having over 25 years of direct regulatory experience. Dr. Williams operated a consulting firm for over 20 years serving clients in a wide variety of regulatory aspects from environmental regulations, food, compliance and pesticide registrations. Having served the past 3 plus years as Director of Quality Assurance he has overseen all regulatory aspects of Mernona Medicinal Inc.. He has overseen Mernova Medicinal Inc. from the initial Health Canada application under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purpose Regulations (ACMPR) to Mernova being licencing for processing and sales under Health Canada’s Cannabis Act and Regulations. In addition, Dr. Williams brings experience and training in Good Laboratory Practice, Good Manufacturing Practices and Good Production Practices.
Frey Garabagi, CSO & Director
Dr. Garabagi currently serves as Chief scientific Officer for SpeakEasy Cannabis Club and Island Canna Seeds. He is a research scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur in the field of plant molecular genetics and biotechnology with 10 years of post-doctoral research experience from the University of Guelph. Prior to joining SpeakEasy, he was VP of Research and Quality Affairs at Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc. from September 2015 to January 2019. Dr. Garabagi founded Herbaceous Inc. in 2012 to organize preclinical research with non-psychoactive cannabinoids on epilepsy and obesity. The company received its right-to-build letter from Health Canada in February 2014 and completed securing a $6M financing in 2015 for the construction of its facility.
Patrick Geen, Interim CFO & Director
Patrick Geen is a co-founder and facility manager at Speakeasy Cannabis Club Ltd. Before relocating to Rock Creek to begin work at Speakeasy Patrick spent the previous 10 years as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer-Avionics in the aerospace industry at Kelowna Flightcraft after graduating at the top of his class from BCIT. Prior to that he spent 14 years as a plant science technologist at Kettle Mountain Ginseng Ltd, one of North Americas largest ginseng producers.
Deborah Cotter, GPC.D, Corporate Compliance
Ms. Cotter joined SpeakEasy in July 2018. She has vast experience in the public markets serving in the capacity of Corporate Secretary and Corporate Compliance Officer for over 20 years. She currently serves as Corporate Secretary to Terrace Energy Corp. and Enviro Metals Corporation, and prior to that she was Corporate Secretary of CRH Medical Corporation from January 2006 until January 2011 and Corporate Secretary of ID Biomedical Corporation from January 1999 until December 2005, the time of its takeover offer by GlaxoSmithKline plc. ID Biomedical grew from an Initial $3 million market capitalization to $1.7 billion at the time of its takeover offer in 2005.
