Brands are the Future of Cannabis

Kirk is the founder and CEO of Kosmik Brands, an Oklahoma-based multi-state Cannabis edibles brand company, offering high THC concentration, specialty flavors gummies.

He also serves on the Board of Directors on the Oklahoma Cannabis Industry Association, representing the Oklahoma cannabis business owners in effecting real legislation change.

Originally from Louisiana, Kirk moved to Oklahoma to become an insurance agent after a long career in law enforcement. Starting from scratch, he built a $20 million dollar agency in 10 years, becoming one of the top 10 Auto & Fire Producer for the largest captive insurance company in the country, earning countless awards and accolades.

Kirk has been a highly sought-after speaker of the insurance industry for many years for his creation of the YBR (Yellow Brick Road) processes. These processes were formed from skills that Kirk developed as a police officer and applied them to the Property & Casualty Sales conversation. These techniques are extremely effective at maximizing the result of every conversation, predicting the responses of prospects, and limiting and overcoming objections.

This conversation inspired Kirk to write the book “The Yellow Brick Road for Insurance Phone Sales”, which instantly became a hit in the insurance industry, and led to the creation of “YBR Scripts”, and “YBR Insurance Sales Training” to make implementation of these processes easy.

Paul serves as Chief Financial Officer for Kosmik Brands, a Cannabis edible brand company in Oklahoma, and currently runs his Cannabis capital company, WXYD Capital in Denver, where he works with Cannabis lenders, banks, and other financial institutions to bring as much capital as possible into the cannabis industry, through both education and facilitating debt financing deals to other cannabis operators.

Paul started his career as a financial analyst for Lightower Fiber Networks, a $5B telecommunications company in MA. After 1 year, Paul decided it would take way too long to achieve his potential in the corporate world, so he quit his job and partnered with a couple of serial entrepreneurs and investors in Boston. He helped create and operate a few companies, as well as a startup investment fund. Paul also worked with Northeastern University’s Center for Research & Innovation to evaluate the market fit for 10 patents (biomedical, electro-magnetic, medical devices, etc.).

Paul moved to Denver, CO to join a cannabis publicly traded company, where he led the finance and accounting departments. Once in the industry, Paul learned about the lack of access to capital and financial infrastructure in the cannabis industry, and saw an opportunity to use his finance skills and network of financial institutions and private funders to help build the cannabis financial services ecosystem.

Paul is also a Board Member for the Financial Policy Council in NYC, and serves on the Banking and Financial Services Committee with the National Cannabis Industry Association.

Paul moved to San Diego, CA, from Romania with his family when he was 14. In high school, Paul was MVP of his football, wrestling and track teams while maintaining a nearly perfect GPA. His original plan was to win a football scholarship, but when learned in his junior year that he could win a scholarship for academic achievement, he quit all sports and focused on school.

Paul graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brandeis University, where he earned a triple major in Economics, Business, and Film Studies.

Paul lives in Colorado where he likes to hike in the mountains, work out, and be deliberate about doing something that scares him every single day. He has 11+ years’ experience of martial arts, including Tae Kwon Do, Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling and Boxing.

Ms Osseiran’s work focuses on global networking, communication, database collection and connecting corporate CEO’s seeking business partnership and collaboration.

A professional education and organization fundraiser with more than ten years of experience and a proven record of fundraising success, Ms Osseiran has many years of experience supporting various charitable and non – profit organizations and committed to making a significant contribution.

Hiba is a member of the Society of International Business Fellows, Middle East Leadership Academy Chapter and Co-Founder of an NGO that supports patients with multiple sclerosis.

Ms Osseiran enjoys worldwide travel to explore new destinations with unique experiences and to expand her network of connections. She maintains strong relationships with influential and professional leaders worldwide.

Dean currently serves as the co-founder and CMO of TabBrands, a plant-based wellness company working with cannabinoids, protein, mushrooms and botanical terpenes.

Dean is passionate about growing disruptive brands. Have overseen three startups from infancy through IPO. I’m a Portfoio CMO which means I work part time for a variety of brands. My goal is to build a solid strategic brand foundation, develop a narrative and help my clients grow rapidly.

Prior to TabBrands, Dean had five successful exits as CMO of HotJobs, Vonage, Kayak, BlueCava and Forensiq. In 2005, Dean won BrandWeek Marketer of the Year (Steve Jobs won the year before). He is also an EFFIE award winner for advertising effectiveness, and has founded and ran a full- service ad agency in NYC (clients included: Coke, Citi, Sotheby’s, J&J.)

His background in marketing includes experience in consumer services, packaged goods, ad tech, online video, telephony, online/mobile games, big data, communications apps, business services, automotive and fintech. He is an expert in branding, go-to-market strategy, positioning, and media buying for companies both B2C and B2B. He’s worked with big teams, hundred million dollar plus marketing budgets as well as startups with zero budget. He is a CMO that is loves storytelling. The narrative does matter.

Dean has an MBA in Marketing and International Business and an MIA (Masters of International Affairs) from Columbia University. He is based in Connecticut, but has worked with companies throughout the world including clients in China, Ireland, Canada, Mexico and Switzerland.

Ziad K. Abdelnour is Founder, President & CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc. a private “family office” in the business of originating, structuring & acting as equity investor in strategic corporate investments and co-Founder of Aeros-Blackhawk Partners; a trading platform focusing on the financing of real estate and project finance properties throughout the US.

Founder & Chairman of the Board of the Financial Policy Council ; a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization designed to give its select group of supporters the opportunity to have direct face-to-face dialogue with the nation’s quintessential power brokers and policymakers

A member of TIGER 21, a peer-to-peer learning group for super high net worth individuals and of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) – a private group of global chief executives whose companies employ 16 million people and generate 6-trillion USD in annual revenues

Author of the bestselling book “Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics” and of the upcoming book ” Startup Saboteurs: How Incompetence, Ego, and Small Thinking Prevent True Wealth Creation” to be published in Summer 2019.

Mr. Abdelnour has over 30 year experience on Wall Street backing over 125 companies & serial entrepreneurs worth in aggregate over 20 billion dollars in the private equity, high yield bond and distressed debt markets.

He holds a MBA in Finance Summa Cum Laude from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania & BS in Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from the American University of Beirut

Today, Mr. Abdelnour continues to be featured in hundreds of media channels and publications every year and is widely seen as one of the top business leaders by millions around the world.

He was just recently been featured as one of the 500 Most Influential CEOs in the World.