John D. Wagner is a Managing Director for 1stWest Mergers & Acquisitions, which has transacted $1 billion+ in deal values and has a speciality practice in cannabis and hemp. John started his work in M&A when he served as director of corporate communications and investor relations for BuildNet, where he helped roll up 12 software companies in an 18-month period and was liaison to the SEC. He has authored many private placement memorandums, an S1 document, and served as a sell-side and buy-side advisor on dozens of deals reaching back to 1999. John is the author of 17 books and 2,500+ articles that have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, NPR, LA Times, and many other outlets. Most recently, he is the author of M&A Basics For Cannabis & Hemp Companies: A Company Owner’s Guide to Key Deal Elements & Common Practices of Mergers & Acquisitions.

Nathan Whigham is President of EN Capital LLC, a capital placement platform for commercial real estate, and CFO of IndoGro Properties, an industrial development and investment platform focused on cannabis real estate. Experienced in project finance and capital raising in real estate, he is also familiar with financial structures in the renewable energy space and tax credit monetization. Nathan most recently served as the Senior Director of CleanFund, the largest commercial PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) lender in the country. He previously served as the Vice President of Business Development at Nebo Capital, a commercial real estate investment banking firm, raising capital for developers, property owners, and institutional real estate investors. Nathan has structured multiple, diverse types of transactions including senior debt, bridge debt, mezzanine debt, tax-credit monetization, note hypothecations, and joint venture equity investments from institutional capital sources, hedge funds, private equity firms, family offices and others. He has also been a solar power developer and solo entrepreneur. Nathan graduated from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California with an MBA in finance and real estate as well as BS in Systems Engineering with a minor in mathematics from the University of Arizona.

Oren Bitan has an extensive legal background that includes business, real estate, banking, receivership, consumer product, and commercial litigation. Mr. Bitan is known for his ability to solve complex business disputes for his clients in a strong but practical manner. He is a trusted advisor who guides his clients through their day to day legal concerns, and has particular expertise in matters involving real estate, banking and lending, creditors’ rights, wine, beer, liquor, cannabis, and intellectual property.

Representative clients include banks and financial institutions, private lenders, state and federal receivers, private investors and investment funds, private equity groups, real property developers, breweries, wineries, distilleries, cannabis businesses, consumer products companies, and corporate entities large and small.

Mr. Bitan advises cannabis businesses on a wide variety of issues, including regulatory advice, banking, lending, financing, intellectual property, receivership, real property development and leasing, and assembling teams of attorneys to provide corporate and employment advice.

His practice experience includes:
• Receivers, Provisional Directors and other Remedies
• Commercial Real Estate Solutions
• Commercial, Corporate and Business Solutions
• Litigation
• Alternatives to Bankruptcy including Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors
• Intellectual Property and Technology Related Issues

Mr. Bitan is also an experienced appellate lawyer and has successfully argued numerous times before the California Court of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

J. David Hitchcock is a Shareholder in the Los Angeles office of Buchalter and is a member of the Firm’s Real Estate Practice Group. Mr. Hitchcock’s practice focuses on real estate acquisitions and dispositions, loan originations, loan workouts and restructurings, loan sales, secured real estate finance, joint ventures, and general real estate matters. Recently, Mr. Hitchcock has represented clients acquiring real property to rezone and lease for cannabis production. He has extensive experience representing clients in all areas of the real estate market – private equity funds, real estate developers, core and value-add real estate owners/operators, public school districts, as well as publicly traded REITs.

Before returning to the practice of law in 2011, Mr. Hitchcock was with Colony Advisors, LLC where he was a Vice President of Asset Management and in charge of a $1 billion portfolio of distressed commercial real estate mortgages and non-performing real estate collateral. Prior to Colony, Mr. Hitchcock ran his own real estate development and mortgage brokerage company.

Mr. Hitchcock is a member of the State Bar of California, the Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the USC Law and Business Forum program committee. Mr. Hitchcock is also actively involved in a number of community organizations. He volunteers at Hillsides Home for Children and helped form Pasadena Education Network, a non-profit organization formed to promote family participation in public education in Pasadena, California.

Jeff Kendig is the Managing Partner of Bravos Capital, where he leads the evaluation of investments, structures transactions and works with portfolio management teams. Bravos Capital is an early-stage, private-equity firm, with a specific focus on the emerging legal cannabis and hemp industry. Bravos has primarily invested in the ancillary services side of the industry in segments including business services, technology services, agricultural products & services, and consumer products & services. Bravos has completed seven investments in the cannabis industry to date. Jeff received his M.B.A. UCLA Anderson School of Management and a B.A. in Economics and Italian from Middlebury College.

Joe Franciskovich is CFO of Old Pal - Shareable Cannabis, where he leads all finance, legal and administrative functions. He joins Old Pal from Ticketmaster, where he served as Deputy CFO leading operational finance for Ticketmaster's marketing, tech, and all non-ticketing business units. Prior to Ticketmaster, Joe spent 10+ years in investment banking and private equity with Citigroup, Platinum Equity, and most recently Steel Partners, leading M&A execution and post-transaction operational improvement activities across a variety of industries.

Joe is a graduate of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, the US Air Force Academy, and served 5 years on active duty in the USAF separating at the rank of Captain.

Laurie has over 20 years’ experience in start-ups, turn-arounds, executive management, business development and financing. She is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gold Flora, LLC, a fully compliant, vertically integrated Cannabis Company located in California with licenses in cultivation, manufacturing, distribution and retail sales. Laurie is also the founder of BlackStar Industrial Properties, LLC, a single purpose entity LLC that purchased 28 acres of land to build and construct 620,000 SF of industrial space in Desert Hot Springs, CA. This project, known as “Gold Flora Farms” will be one of the premiere cannabis campuses in California and one of the largest indoor cannabis facilities in the United States.

Laurie has her Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University and has completed her certificate of Entrepreneurial Leadership from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Laurie holds her California Real Estate Broker’s License since 2005. She was also named “Woman of the Year” by the National Association of Profession Women in both 2011 and 2012.

Prior to Co-Founding Satya Capital, Nishant founded NMR Capital, a full service investment firm focused on real estate development and early seed investing in the technology sector. Through NMR initially, Nishant began working in, and investing in cannabis. Over the last 6-years, Mr. Reddy has provided debt within the industry, served as an executive for a CA dispensary chain, and developed ground-up touch the plant companies. Nishant spent over a decade in investment banking and private equity between J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. Nishant holds a B.S. in Finance and Economics from American University, a Master’s in Real Estate Finance & Development from a joint program between American University and Georgetown University. Currently, Nishant is pursuing a degree in Horticulture from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Noah Streit is President of Streit Lending, the private mortgage lending business affiliated with the Streit Family. Noah oversees the sourcing, structuring, underwriting, executing and servicing of all bridge loans for the Streit Family and is a member of the Streit Family’s Loan Committee. Mr. Streit is also the President of Streit Real Estate, a real estate investment and management company that oversees the operations of the Streit Family’s portfolio of multifamily housing in Southern California and Colorado. Streit Real Estate focuses on the acquisition, rehabilitation and management of value-add and distressed multi-family opportunities.

Mr. Streit has a Bachelor of the Arts in Political Science from Yeshiva University and is a licensed real estate broker in the State of California.

Peter Rosenberg is a Partner at Merida Capital Partners, a private equity firm investing exclusively in cannabis companies. Mr. Rosenberg brings to Merida extensive business development, transaction execution, and portfolio monitoring expertise in the cannabis space. His specific areas of expertise include capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, and vertical knowledge in the consumer products and services, distribution and specialty retail sectors. Before joining Merida, he invested privately in several other early stage cannabis companies. Mr. Rosenberg has 35 years of experience in the financial services industry and has held senior-level positions in leveraged finance, investment banking, private equity, commercial banking and asset management. Mr. Rosenberg worked previously as a Managing Director for Duff & Phelps, Wells Fargo Securities, Barrington Associates, and Salomon Brothers.

Prior to investment banking and M&A, Mr. Rosenberg worked for BLUM Capital as a hedge fund partner, Comann, Howard & Flamen as an Associate for the private equity firm, and a marketing and credit officer for Security Pacific Bank and Manufacturers Hanover Bank. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado with a B.S. degree in Business and Administration, and holds active Series 7, 63 and 24 FINRA securities licenses. Mr. Rosenberg also serves on the Board of Directors of GrowGeneration and is a member of Merida Capital Partners’ investment committee.

Rob is the co-founding President of Pelorus Equity Group and has more than 18 years of experience in the real estate finance industry. Since the formation of Pelorus in 2010, he has raised more than $200,000,000 in secured real estate transactions. Rob’s primary role at Pelorus Equity Group is the development of strategic alliances with both private and institutional investors, formation of equity partnerships, coordinating the company’s growth into new markets and as an underwriter of transactions. Rob also oversees the direction of the marketing programs to borrowers, brokers and investors. Today, Pelorus raises several million a month through the company’s investors and equity partnerships. Prior to joining the real estate industry, Rob was the founder and CEO of an international action sports manufacturing company. He has also managed medical product sales in Southern California as well as trained the sales reps nationally for an orthopedic manufacturer.