Executive Spotlight: Everett Knight, Executive VP, Strategy & Investments of Valens GroWorks Corp.

Everett Knight oversees corporate strategy including mergers & acquisitions, marketing, and investor relations. Mr. Knight is known across the cannabis space for his expertise and thought leadership where he has been involved with working, analyzing, lobbying, investing, advising, and consulting throughout the cannabis value chain. 

Prior to Valens, Mr. Knight was a portfolio manager at Matco Financial Inc where he ran a Small Cap Fund and launched the first long only institutional Cannabis Fund in Canada and led them both to become the top performing funds in their corresponding categories. He has toured over 85 facilities worldwide and analyzed over 1200+ cannabis globally where he accumulated a thorough understanding of the industry, regulations, subsectors, and the companies involved in this fast-growing space. His focus in the cannabis industry has shifted in recent years to developing a specialty in extraction, testing, formulation, & value-added products. 

Mr. Knight graduated from the University of Calgary, Haskayne School of Business with a Bachelor in Commerce majoring in Finance and also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

 

Title: Executive Vice President, Strategy and Investments 

Company: Valens GroWorks Corp.

Years at current company: 9 months  

 

GMR Executive Spotlight:

Most successful professional accomplishment before cannabis: Prior to Valens, Mr. Knight was a portfolio manager at Matco Financial Inc where he ran a Small Cap Fund and launched the first long only institutional Cannabis Fund in Canada and led them both to become the top performing funds in their corresponding categories.

Company Mission: Valens GroWorks believes in creating products for those who need them. We do things the right way without ever cutting corners. Whether it’s medical or recreational, local or international, we’re pursuing meaningful extraction, formulation, product development and testing to bring purposeful cannabis to the people.

Company’s most successful achievement: Valens is the largest publicly traded third-party extraction company in the world, and the first in Canada to receive organic certification for cannabis oil production from Pro-Cert Organic Systems Ltd. for its proprietary CO2 and ethanol extraction processing methods in accordance with the Canadian Organic Standards. Valens Labs is also the first ISO 17025 accredited lab for cannabis in Canada and was named the “Centre of Excellence in Plant-Based Science” by $100B market cap scientific instruments company, Thermo Fisher Scientific. Valens is the only company in Canada to provide five types of extraction methodologies servicing the widest range of product development with a robust formulation portfolio equipped to develop new cannabis products. The Company has already secured multi-year extraction agreements with top licensed producers such as The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd, Tilray Canada Ltd., Organigram Inc, Sundial Growers Inc and Canopy Growth Corporation. The Company has expanded its annual extraction capacity to 425,000KG of dried cannabis and hemp biomass, with plans to expand its extraction capacity to over 1,000,000KG in the first half of 2020. 

Has the company raised any capital (yes or no): Yes

If so, how much?: In 2018, the Company raised $41M in capital. In April 2019, $43,125,000 gross proceeds were raised through bought deal financing providing strong cash position to be able to execute on the Company’s growth plan.

Any plans on raising capital in the future? The core focus of the Company is to continue on its growth trajectory and advance its expansion geographically as well as build out it’s second Kelowna location to house various types of co-packing and oil derivative product development. As Valens continues to pursue what is in the best interest of its shareholders, the Company will continue to evaluate future opportunities and manage its growth responsibly. 

Most important company 5 year goal: The Company is ramping up its white label product development activities as edibles and concentrates are expected to hit shelves later this year. With over 100 years of combined extraction experience on our team, Valens has worked hard on its formulation portfolio which will be essential to the development of new innovative products coming this year, enabling its partners to differentiate their offerings. While Valens continues to operate as a best-in-class provider of crude oil, winterized oil, distillate, and isolate to the cannabis market, its new capacity will also allow the Company to expand its capabilities in product development and manufacturing to meet changing consumer market demands in the upcoming years. Valens plans to use its modern extraction technology and unrivalled expertise along with a new capacity increase to advance its capabilities and ultimately expand into the CPG category.

 

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