Arcview is led by some of the most respected names in the cannabis industry.
Kimberly Kovacs
CEO
Kimberly has over 20 years of executive leadership and experience across technology services and investment companies. As the founder and CEO of MyJane, Kim built a cannabis wellness technology platform which was acquired in January of 2019 by ManifestSeven. Prior to MyJane, Kim founded or co-founded six additional companies, raised more than $100M in equity capital and has been an active angel investor for more than ten years. Most recently, she served as President of the Los Angeles Venture Association where she launched the CannaLAVA strategic group designed to bring cannabis industry leaders together in Los Angeles.
Troy Dayton
Founder & Chief Strategy Officer
Troy Dayton spent 15 years working to legalize cannabis before founding Arcview in 2010 with fellow pioneer Steve DeAngelo. He also serves as chairman of the board of the Marijuana Policy Project and was formerly its chief fundraiser and among its first volunteers when it was founded in 1995. He is a founding and current board member of the National Cannabis Industry Association and he co-founded of Students for Sensible Drug Policy in 1998, which is now on over 300 campuses. Fortune Magazine, Details Magazine, and International Business Times all list Troy in their top 10 lists of the most influential people in the cannabis industry. In his free time, Troy enjoys Burning Man, karaoke, and participating in and leading personal growth workshops.
Steve DeAngelo
Founder
Steve DeAngelo has spent his entire career at the intersection of cannabis activism and entrepreneurship. As CEO of Harborside Health Center, Steve co-founded and directed California’s most widely acclaimed medical cannabis dispensary–and set a new standard of excellence for the entire industry. Steve also launched the industry’s first lab testing service, Steep Hill Labs. Steve spent the decade of the 1990′s leading Ecolution, Inc., a pioneering producer of industrial hemp goods that sold to retail stores in all 50 states and 21 countries. Steve played an instrumental role in the passage of Proposition 59, Washington DC’s medical cannabis initiative; co-producing Hempilation I and II CDs with Capricorn Records; and organizing the world famous 4th of July demonstrations at the White House. He was the star of the Discovery Channel’s reality show Weed Wars.
Jeffrey Finkle
CEO, Arcview Ventures
Named one of the “25 Angel Investors in New York You Need to Know” by AlleyWatch in 2014, Jeff has been a venture investor for ten years, an angel investor for nine years. Jeff is presently CEO of the Arcview Ventures and founder of the Arcview Collective Fund, the first member-managed fund in cannabis. He also serves as Chairman of the Evaluation Committee and Treasurer of the Angel Round Capital.
Jeff was a founding partner of Odeon Capital Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund with $115M AUM, and publishes insights to his blog www.finkabout.it. He is a frequent panelist, speaker, and judge on venture investing and pitch competitions in NY. Jeff has also guest lectured and held office hours for many incubators/accelerators including Start-up Leadership Program, 37 Angels, NYU Polytech Incubator (New York City and Brooklyn), DreamIT Ventures, and FashInvest.
Jeanne M. Sullivan
CIO, Arcview Ventures
Jeanne has been a member of the Arcview team for several years –and is an advisor, investor and sought-after speaker in the cannabis sector. She is the CIO of Arcview Ventures and co-founder of the Arcview Collective Fund. Formerly, Sullivan co-founded a NYC-based tech venture capital fund with $400 million under management. Jeanne has been a member of the Women’s Leadership Board at the Harvard Kennedy School and is an Athena Entrepreneur Fellow for Barnard College. She also serves on the Global Board of Trustees of Astia, funding high-growth women entrepreneurs. Forbes cited Sullivan as “one of the women VCs changing the world. The New York Hall of Science honored Jeanne for her work inspiring girls and women in science, technology (STEM) sectors. Jeanne also serves on its Board of Trustees.
Dean Kisieu
Chief Financial Officer
Dean Kisieu brings over 20 years of leadership in finance, strategy and operations in a variety of industries, including technology, media and professional services. He has been in leadership positions in organizations ranging from start-ups, to hyper growth, to hundreds of employees and revenues in the hundreds of millions. He has been instrumental in raising tens of millions of dollars in equity and debt, as well as a multitude of acquisitions and joint ventures.
He was also an entrepreneur who sold one of the businesses he founded, and a founding executive of a social venture incubator. His experience spans North America and Europe and his education includes an MBA from Wharton and a BA from Stanford University.
Carolyn Matthies
Chief Marketing Officer
Carolyn Matthies brings 20 years of experience in high-tech and big data, where she authored a patent for an intelligent database solution. As VP of Marketing and Operations at MyJane in 2019, Carolyn began her journey in cannabis, where she found a new passion and opportunity to make an impact in a budding industry. She has held leadership roles in innovation-focused divisions, with an affinity for disrupter initiatives at both Fortune 500 companies including CoreLogic, Experian, AT&T and Lucent Technologies and well as start-up size organizations.
David Abernathy
VP of Research & Consulting
David Abernathy started his career doing project administration and management for a London-based engineering and consulting firm. From there he transitioned to an Australian investment bank where he worked with the Infrastructure Legal team financing billion-dollar wind farm projects. He spent several years doing investment due diligence, freelance business development, and business administration consulting.
From 2009-2012, he ran a financial services and consulting firm for the medical cannabis industry whose clients included cultivation collectives, dispensaries, equipment manufacturers, and cannabis R&D companies around the State of California. Mr. Abernathy worked as an adviser to UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy on a report for the City of Oakland about the economic impact of regulated, large-scale, indoor cannabis cultivations.
In addition to his work at The Arcview Group, David teaches the Economics of Cannabis at Oaksterdam University, is on the Board of Directors of the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), co-owns a miniature golf company, helps run a nonprofit cat rescue organization which built America’s first cat café, and sits on the Board of Trustees of a French-American bilingual school in Berkeley, CA.
Louis Han
VP of Operations
Louis serves as Vice President of Operations where he oversees Arcview’s community education and internal operations. He has been involved in the cannabis industry since 2014 as the founder of a California cannabis collective and with The Arcview Group since 2015. Since being part of The Arcview Group’s team, he has been responsible for vetting more than 1,000 cannabis companies per year, been part of numerous speaking engagements with renowned industry leaders, and has managed more than $100M in investments from startups he has worked with. He gained his investment experience from working with high net-worth investors in private equity and debt financings in international commercial real estate transactions.
He received his law degree from Santa Clara University with a focus on corporate law. He received his B.A. from the University of California, Davis. He is an advisor, mentor, and speaker for numerous organizations including The Minority Cannabis Business Association, the CanopyBoulder accelerator program, the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, and others. He is a sought after speaker primarily on industry trends and capital raising both in and outside of the cannabis industry.
Jake Kuczeruk
VP of Business Development
A native of the Detroit and Indianapolis areas, Jake moved to the Bay Area after graduating from Indiana University with degrees in Public Policy and Business. Previously, Jake founded the menswear service Tie Society and was part of the core team at Console.fm (both 500 Startups).
After a turn running Business Development for both West Agile Labs and MegaBots, Jake shifted into the blockchain space joining WeTrust, Dispatch Labs, and The Bureau. Jake is an active startup advisor, serving as Managing Director of Founder Institute’s SF chapter, and mentor for top accelerators like 500 Startups, GSV Labs, Alchemist Accelerator, among others. He’s guest lectured for Masters-level University courses and assists a prominent Japanese investor in sourcing potential investments.
Jake mainly enjoys spending time with his wife and two cats when he’s not watching Red Wings hockey.
Laura Toomey
Chief of Staff
Laura Toomey has experience working with industries spanning cannabis, fashion, marketing, technology, and more. She began her career in New York City at the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and has since moved to California to pursue a career in cannabis. Most recently, she worked with Kim Kovacs at MyJane as Chief of Staff, and led the CannaLAVA division of Los Angeles Venture Association.
Core Team
Guillermo Azurdia
Information Technology Manager
As Information Technology Manager, Guillermo focuses on managing all platforms and systems in the company.
He has over 18 years of experience in software development, project management, information security, systems architecture, data management and e-commerce platforms, spanning a variety of industries including government, insurance, education, retail and media organizations, leading engineering teams across companies in the United States and Latin America. He won two first-place social media awards with his own music platform built from the ground.
Marc Brandl
Investor Support / Arcview Market Research
Marc brings over 20 years experience in the cannabis sector. He is a co-founder of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and served as a project manager at the Marijuana Policy project in the late 90s. Marc is a successful independent investor in cannabis and renewable energy.
Marc has served in a number of roles for Arcview and now resides in Brussels, Belgium.
Alexandria Collins
Social and Digital Production
Alexandria Collins has worked in media production and digital marketing in fashion, film and tech for the last six years across the US. Originally from Tallahassee, FL she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Florida A&M University and shortly after moved to NYC to work in the film industry. After directing several festival selected narrative projects and producing commercial content for brands such as Loreal, Caudalie, and Tiffany & Co, Alexandria moved to LA for a larger market and found a new home in the cannabis industry.
Alexandria is excited about the opportunities and navigating the challenges of marketing in the cannabis space. She’s passionate about informing and educating audiences through creative creative content strategy and execution.
Gopa Dobson
Director of Strategic Relations
Gopa brings her talent for driving sales and developing strong relationships to The Arcview Group as Director of Strategic Relations.
Gopa joins Arcview with a formidable background in sales and marketing, most recently, driving sales and awareness for Faith popcorn’s BrainReserve. As the top biller at NY1 News, she helped launch the network to Madison Avenue creating strategic advertising partnerships. Gopa then joined MTV Networks Affiliate Sales & Marketing and was responsible for NYC and key markets in the Northeast.
Most recently, she took her skills to work with non-profits, such as Waterkeeper Alliance, Millennium Promise and The McCarton Foundation to help them generate over $5 million in donations.
Sarah Falvo
Director of Community
Sarah has been in the cannabis industry for nearly three years, and thrives on facilitating connections that will steward the industry in a time of rapid growth by aligning interests, people, and values towards a common goal. Her prior industry experience afforded her the opportunity to work with many companies of varying sizes, including MSOs, public and private entities.
Prior to joining the cannabis industry, Sarah had a long-tenured background in Fundraising — both in the arts and community resources. She is a Southern California native, who spent 15 years in the New York area honing her professional skill set, and is happy to be back on the West Coast, making a positive impact in the cannabis industry. In addition to her professional life, Sarah has two young girls, who she is raising to become the next industry leaders of the world.
Kylie Learakos
Program Manager
As Program Manager for The Arcview Group, Kylie supports all functions and growth of the Women’s Investor Network. She joined the cannabis industry in 2019 as an Executive Recruiter with a passion for facilitating the education and development of an equitable cannabis industry. Kylie transitioned to Program Manager after initiating a social responsibility program focused on helping Last Prisoner Project’s justice impacted constituents re-enter the workforce. Prior to joining the cannabis industry, her Swiss army knife experience includes marketing, human resources, operations, and sales in the Southern California residential home market and in agency staffing for a wide variety of industries.
Erica Moore
Marketing Project Manager
As Marketing Project Manager, Erica focuses on, ensuring that our various projects, including webinars, events, design projects, marketing campaigns, and more, are executed with excellence. She has previous experience working in the mortgage and hospitality industries, and even prior to joining Arcview in 2018 she was involved with the cannabis community for many years as an advocate and supporter.
Erica is a graduate of Arizona State University where she earned a B.A. in Anthropology and a B.S. in Justice Studies, with a main focus in social and political justice. She is a native of Oakland, CA and loves living in the Bay Area.
In her spare time, Erica enjoys outdoor activities with her husband and dog, photography, watching baseball & basketball, practicing dance and yoga, and traveling.
Ben York
Due Diligence & Deal Flow Manager
Ben York is the Deal Flow Manager at Arcview, overseeing the pipeline of companies that raise capital with the investor network. Before joining Arcview, Ben was an Investor at Venture University, a multi-stage investment fund and an accelerator to enter venture capital.
Prior to his time at Venture University, Ben was an Account Executive at Remedly, providing Practice Management software to private medical practices. Before joining Remedly, Ben was an Analyst at Citigroup in both the Equity Derivatives and Securitized Products desks in Chicago. Ben holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Colby College where he studied Economics with a concentration in Financial Markets. In his spare time, Ben is an avid Arsenal FC fan and sneaker collector.
Francis Priznar
Chief Mentor
Francis J. Priznar is Chief Mentor, directing a team of staff and external experts focused on helping hundreds of high potential entrepreneurs in quest of capital and/or valuable advice.
Mr. Priznar’s relevant background includes three years directing a national analytical testing laboratory, two years managing a state regulatory agency program, and over 20 years as a trusted advisor to private and government sector clients. He founded or cofounded four private firms and two non-profit organizations, acquired two, and sold one. He has authored or co-authored dozens of books and articles on contemporary business topics such as sustainability, management systems, auditing, regulatory compliance, leadership, and fundraising.
Effective from the Board Room to the Boiler Room, Mr. Priznar provides Arcview, as well as its members and stakeholder’s, seasoned judgement and experience. He has served on Boards at academic institutions and nonprofit organizations – usually in leadership positions.
Mr. Priznar is a cannabis sector investor with a personal portfolio of over 20 companies. His formal education is in science, engineering, and management. Since 1987, he has resided in the same house with the same spouse near Washington, DC.
Patrick Rea
Advisor
Patrick Rea served as the Executive Editor for Arcview Market Research’s 3rd edition of The State of Legal Marijuana Markets. He is also the CEO and Managing Director of CanopyBoulder, Arcview’s partner seed-stage business accelerator.
In the last 15 years, Patrick has developed a reputation as a self-care industry expert and analyst who has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs build profitable and fast-growing businesses. Patrick successfully has led numerous investment banking, strategic consulting, venture capital, publishing, event management, digital media and ecommerce businesses.
He graduated with degrees from Brown University, and resides in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and two daughters.
Patrick’s background includes 8-years as Publisher & Editorial Director of Nutrition Business Journal, the “journal of record” for the nutrition industry. In this role, Patrick led a team of editors and researchers in their effort to provide an unbiased perspective on the nutrition industry for its CEO, investor, consultant and thought leader subscribers. NBJ published a monthly journal, market research reports, webinars and proprietary data on this privately held industry. While at NBJ, Patrick also was the Chairman the NBJ Summit, an executive retreat for 400 CEOs in the nutrition industry.
Codie Sanchez
Board Member
Codie Sanchez is a Managing Director and Partner at Entourage Effect Capital, a private equity firm focused specifically on investing in the legalized cannabis industry. Since its inception in the summer of 2014, EEC has deployed close to $160 million into over 65 companies out of its three dedicated funds and co-investment vehicles. Prior to EEC she previously lead First Trust’s Latin America Investment business and held positions at Goldman Sachs, State Street, and Vanguard. She started her career as a journalist where she won the JFK award and the Howard Buffett Foundation grant for covering human trafficking. Sanchez is a pundit and columnist on investing, cannabis and startups, highlighted on CNBC, Fox, The Today Show, Forbes, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, People en Español, Business Wire, for her Contrarian Thinking series and weekly email followed by 100k+. She was listed as a 25 Most Innovative Leader in Cannabis, The Cannabis Disruptor by MG Retailer, and EEC was named a Top 10 PE Firm by Forbes/BI/Entrepreneur in the space. She has an M.B.A. from Georgetown University, a master’s from ESADE and Fundação Getúlio Vargas, and a B.A. from Arizona State University. She sits on the board of the Arcview Group, the leading cannabis seed investment platform, Magma Partners a venture fund in Chile, and is actively involved in AEI and YEC.
