Michael who currently serves as Director of Cultivation for Pipp Horticulture and Chief Operating Officer for Catalyst BC is a legacy licensed cannabis operator and pioneer in vertical farming. After graduating from the University of Central Florida, Michael worked as a consultant for Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals for 8 years coaching and mentoring newly diagnosed Multiple Sclerosis patients. Recognizing the medicinal benefits of cannabis, Michael relocated to Denver, Colorado in 2009 and co-founded and operated Kind Love; an award winning and vertically integrated medical cannabis company which included 95,000 square feet of indoor cultivation, extraction, commercial kitchen and a retail dispensary serving both medical and adult use cannabis. In 2013, Michael co-founded Greenhaus Industries where he and his team developed and patented several cultivation trays designed for various cultivation strategies and that could be stacked allowing cultivators to maximize space by grow on multiple tiers. Pipp Horticulture acquired Greenhaus Industries in 2018. From 2016-2017, Michael served as Director of Operations for FLRish Inc. & Harborside Farms, a 47-acre farm in Salinas, California with 217,800 sq. ft. of controlled-environment greenhouse cultivation.To date, Michael has designed and consulted on over 7 million sq. ft. of indoor, greenhouse and outdoor cultivation facilities in the United States, Canada, Colombia, Australia and Switzerland. Furthermore, Michael has 25,000+ hours in cultivation and dispensary operations which includes over 3,000 compliant harvests and counting. Michael is GAP certified from Cornell University and an advocate for LEAN Farming and Manufacturing. As, Chief Operating Officer of Catalyst BC, Michael fuses his development knowledge and operation experience to provide full-scale support and strategy to emerging and existing cannabis operations.