In yet another example of mainstream executives entering the cannabis industry, 4Front Holdings announced Tuesday that Glenn Backus, a former Trader Joe\u2019s executive, will serve as the cannabis management company\u2019s president for their network of Mission retail operations in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
While this move might seem clinical and corporate on 4Front\u2019s part, the company\u2019s founder believes he\u2019s making a choice for the good of the industry that other companies will soon be emulating.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not just looking to bring in just any corporate bigwigs, but someone that fits with the culture we\u2019re building,\u201d 4Front founder Chris Krane told Cannabis Now. Krane added that he would be very surprised if the industry trend of picking up retail executives from other proven brands didn\u2019t continue strong in 2019.<\/p>\n
At Trader Joe\u2019s, Backus was the vice president of buying and vice president of store operations for New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. He also spent time in executive roles at Sunflower Markets, the Texas-based grocery chain HEB and Topco and started his own food company called Revolution Brands, while teaching MBA-level classes at the\u00a0Lake Forest Graduate School of Management<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Chicago, Illinois<\/a>.<\/p>\n Essentially, Backus\u2019 resume is white-collar enough to make his hiring sound like another example of a corporate monolith moving pieces around the cannabis industry chess board \u2014 something\u00a0similar to former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner joining Acreage Holdings<\/a>.<\/p>\n But 4Front<\/a> has been in the cannabis industry since 2011 (longer than many other large cannabis companies dominating the market today) and Krane got his start serving stints in the leadership of both\u00a0NORML<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Students for Sensible Drug Policy<\/a>\u00a0before heading west to help the industry begin maturing in Oakland, California.<\/p>\n As one of the true OGs in the mix right now when it comes to cannabis policy reform, Krane said that his hiring practices over the last few years have emphasized hiring activism- and policy-minded individuals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the culture-building thing,\u201d Krane said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to bring in people that will help us build a culture for our businesses that we can be proud of. The Trader Joe\u2019s culture is a terrific culture. People like working there, people like shopping there, people like being in the stores. That\u2019s much more what we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n Krane said it was a deliberate choice to hire an individual who worked at Trader Joe\u2019s, which is known for being\u00a0a more socially conscious<\/a>\u00a0big box retailer.<\/p>\n Plus, he noted that as the cannabis industry continues to mature, it\u2019s going to continue to need to professionalize.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to do that, you need real professionals that understand how to run real businesses and retail operations,\u201d Krane said. \u201cIt\u2019s been awesome bringing in people like this and seeing them apply their expertise quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, do you think hiring executives from other industries helps or hurts canna-businesses?<\/p>\n The post Former Trader Joe\u2019s Executive Enters Cannabis Industry<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In yet another example of mainstream executives entering the cannabis industry, 4Front Holdings announced Tuesday that Glenn Backus, a former Trader Joe\u2019s executive, will serve as the cannabis management company\u2019s president for their network of Mission retail operations in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. While this move might seem clinicalContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3036,50,4314,170,702,7009,4552,7010],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31959,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31958\/revisions\/31959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Former Trader Joe\u2019s Executive Enters Cannabis Industry<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"