Ryan Brown Email & Phone Number

Portland, Oregon, United States

Leveraging expertise in multi-unit retail, indoor agriculture, manufacturing and regulated products in the cannabis industry to provide organizational design, organizational efficiency, retail transformation, product and pricing strategy and optimization to businesses throughout the regulated products value chain.

Portland, Oregon, United States

Recruited by the company’s board to lead the vertically integrated retailer (27 stores at peak in OR and CA) with 2 manufacturing facilities, indoor agricultural farm, and wholesale / distribution of consumer-packaged goods. This was an opportunity to take a company with great brands and amazing assets and turnaround operational and financial performance. I structured a leadership team and that dove headlong into the work to make meaningful change. We created a comprehensive turnaround plan that included, restructuring the company’s operating teams to reduce G&A and operating costs, restructuring the retail model, redeveloping the company’s packaged goods strategy and brands, and departing the CA marketplace. I also teed up the company for acquisition before stepping down to create a smooth transition.A few highlights:- Reduced G&A expenses 35% and product COGS 20% while increasing customer transactions and product volume significantly.- Implemented co-manufacturing business to leverage underutilized production facilities and deployed refreshed product portfolio, resulting in 3x growth in product sales.- Refreshed indoor farm product strategy and sales model, resulting in key farm brand being recognized as the top selling flower brand for 2022.- Evolved the retail pricing, retail team structure and merchandise strategy, resulting in retail outperforming monthly sales growth in Oregon by 5% after a long history of underperformance.- Dramatically reduced the company’s monthly financial deficit to near breakeven at the time of proceeding forward with merge partner.- Fulfilled board’s decision to source merge partner to better ensure long-term sustainability.

Winnipeg, Canada Area

Founded this company which had 3 locations with 4 other Canadian companies via a joint venture, which was controlled by Native Roots. Oversaw the organization of 45 team members, up to $10 million in annual revenues and developed / launched the company brand from based upon my deep experience in the industry in the U.S. but tailored to meet the needs of a Canadian consumer. Structured a joint venture agreements, economics, and structure, grew / managed the retail team as well as directed the Canadian leadership team. Structured a U.S. shared service team with the goal to support the Canadian team but keep overhead as efficient as possible. Led company board meetings with shareholders, annual budgeting cycle with quarterly updates, objectives and key results (OKRs) and the rhythm of the company’s operations. Truly a rewarding experience made possible because of the great partners in the US and Canada.A few highlights: - Navigated challenging regulated licensing process to beat out over 100 competitors to be 1 of 4 license operators to become first U.S.-regulated cannabis retailer to enter Canada with 3 premium locations. - Raised mission-critical funding to stand-up the operation of new enterprise. - Launched company’s retail brand into Canada and quickly captured outsized market share. - Propelled company into being one of the first to ship products direct-to-consumer; worked with tech providers to build residential shipments into website and structured delivery process.

Led the vertically integrated retailer (20 stores in CO) with a nearly 200k sq ft indoor agriculture, process manufacturing and B2B distribution facility after previously leading revenue operations. Created the leadership structure, internal operational and cultural infrastructure (company strategy, long range goals, near-term objectives, budgeting cycles, etc.) that allowed this 450+ staff company to thrive, achieve record financial and operational objectives and be recognized locally as one of Colorado’s top workplaces. This position allowed me to execute my belief that with a strong culture, and a tight focus on what the company is trying to accomplish and a deep priority in adding value to the customer you can achieve amazing results and create inspiring cultures. From our value of Community, we created the Native Roots Foundation to support local community nonprofits, with $50,000 in financial support and 2,000 hours donated. A few highlights: - Massively expanded retail sales while achieving industry-leading 25%+ EBITDA retail margins. - Achieved record company revenue during COVID due to proactive adjustment to company operations and ended up with nearly 10% operating cashflow for the year. - Cut front-line staff turnover 5%+ after implementing first-ever employee engagement plan, creating transparent company goals, and implementing key performance indicator (KPI) measurements. - Opened largest industry’s indoor agriculture and process manufacturing / distribution facility (180,000+ s.f.) as company’s flagship. - Moved lowest-performing locations to new sites which then became 2 of company’s top 5 retail stores. - Increased sales 2.5x compared to the state’s average retail store to position the company as top industry leader with one of the largest retail portfolios in CO. - Drastically reduced manufactured packaged goods COGS 40% and product waste percentage from 10% to low single digits.

Recruited to RevGen Partners by the founders, previous colleagues at Hitachi Consulting. During my time at RevGen, I oversaw 20 up to consultants, one of the larger budgets at the firm, and led up to 6 concurrent projects. Progressed from leading one team to leading multiple while spending more time managing the clients’ overall success and delivering value. My work involved managing strategies and execution for multiple operational areas including organizational strategy, leadership goal setting, leader performance management, technology implementations, e-commerce site optimizations, customer journey, KPIs, process improvements, assessment tools, compensation model design, and IT architecture. Learned through this environment that building meaningful relationships, sustaining the growth of the firm and supporting the client’s success required not selling every possible dollar of professional services, but delivering only those projects that would meaningfully impact the success of the client. A few highlights: - Grew the education practice area revenues by 2x in approx. 2 years, in that time adding 4 new clients. - Led $1 billion education client as program manager as it undertook a major effort to revamp curriculum design, assessment, professional development, education technology, as well as culture shifts for using data to align to new state standards impacting 200 leaders, 14,000 educators, and ~90,000 students. - Created educator effectiveness tool tracking engagement, progress, and coaching activities supporting team members across more than 100 sites. - Spearheaded the creation of pro bono consulting projects benefitting local non-profits with team members with additional capacity.

In this role I supported the success of many clients across Healthcare, Building Materials Supply, Utility, and Non-Profit industries as a project manager, change management lead, program manager and business analyst. This deep experience and high-pace of change allowed me to learn at an incredible rate, seeing common challenges and needs for highly effective business operations across industries and business functions (supply chain, revenue, inventory, finance, IT, etc.). This allowed me to learn best practices in creating business process, managing teams, and supporting team members through change.A few highlights:- Managed a project for a $7 billion building materials supplier with hundreds of locations nationwide to implement a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. - Served as change management lead for a $500 million global non-profit to align the process for fundraising and deploying donated funds supporting organizational representatives from 29.- Supported a $6 billion regional electric and gas utility company modernize the technology enabling their business operations with 12 distinct projects and thousands of staff impacted across dozens of sites.

- Developed financial models and business plans for a variety of renewable energy ventures (wind, solar, and biodiesel) - Assisted in writing and editing grant applications for feasability analysis of renewable energy ventures

Mba, Sustainable Business

Activities and Societies: Member: Beta Gamma Sigma (International Business Honor Society), Net ImpactFocused my business curriculum.

Bachelors Or Arts, Philosophy, Digital Media Studies

Bachelors Of Arts, Philosophy, Digital Media Studies