Executive Officers

Scott Sozio, 38
CEO and Director

Mr. Sozio is also a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Hypur Ventures since 2016, where he sources, structures, negotiates and executes portfolio investments. Since 2015, Mr. Sozio has been a Director of Hypur Inc., a financial technology firm focused on banking compliance, and since 2016, a Director of Simplifya Holdings, LLC, a cannabis compliance technology business, both portfolio companies of Hypur Ventures. Mr. Sozio has also been a Partner at the family office investment firm of our Chairman, Van Dyke Holdings, since its inception in 2013. Since the founding of Van Dyke Holdings, Mr. Sozio has been responsible for its private investment portfolio, and he led its initial deal in the cannabis industry in 2014. Prior to joining Van Dyke Holdings, Mr. Sozio was a Vice President of Bay Harbour Management L.C., a distressed-debt focused hedge fund founded by our Chairman. He joined Bay Harbour in 2004 after working in the Financial Restructuring Advisory Group at CIBC World Markets. Mr. Sozio is the former Chairman of Island One, Inc., a timeshare company based in Florida (from 2011 to 2012), and acquired by Diamond Resorts as part of Diamond’s IPO, and a former Director of Great Destinations, Inc., a timeshare sales business based in California (from 2013 to 2016), and acquired by Interval International in 2016. Mr. Sozio holds a B.A. in Architecture from Columbia University.

Tahira Rehmatullah, 35
CFO

Since 2016, Ms. Rehmatullah has been a Managing Director of Hypur Ventures, where she is responsible for portfolio company management as well as investment sourcing and execution. Since June 2017, Ms. Rehmatullah has served as a Director of Dope Media, a cannabis media company and portfolio company of Hypur Ventures. Prior to joining Hypur Ventures, from 2014 to 2016 Ms. Rehmatullah served as the General Manager of Marley Natural, a cannabis brand based on the life and legacy of Bob Marley, where she was responsible for the brand launch as well as managing its day-to-day operations. From 2014 to 2016, she was also an Investment Manager at Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm with investments in the legal cannabis industry. Prior to her activities in the cannabis industry, from 2011 to 2012, Ms. Rehmatullah was a Portfolio Manager at City First Enterprises, or CFE, where she was responsible for underwriting, structuring and managing deals for their community development and investment portfolio. Before CFE, from 2007 to 2011 Ms. Rehmatullah was an associate at Perry Capital where she led research initiatives for the asset-backed securities team. Her career began in Ernst & Young’s Financial Services Advisory practice in 2005. Ms. Rehmatullah holds an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management and was a Yale Entrepreneurial Institute Venture Creation Advisor. She holds a B.S. in Finance and minor in Life Sciences from The Ohio State University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude and was a Presidential Scholar.

Board of Directors

Steven Van Dyke, 58
Chairman of the Board of Directors

Mr. Van Dyke is a Co-Founder and Chairman of Hypur Ventures, L.P., or Hypur Ventures, a cannabis-focused venture capital fund founded in 2016. His role at Hypur Ventures is to guide portfolio construction and deal structuring. Mr. Van Dyke has more than 30 years of capital management experience, having founded and run two hedge funds with over $1 billion in assets under management, most recently as founding partner of New York-based BHR Capital LLC, a hedge fund with over $1 billion in assets under management at the time of his departure in 2012. Mr. Van Dyke founded BHR’s predecessor firm, Bay Harbour Management, L.C. in 1996, growing it into a $1 billion distressed-debt focused hedge fund. Mr. Van Dyke built his career and reputation around his expertise in alternative investments, including restructurings, venture capital and real estate. In addition to his role at Hypur Ventures, Mr. Van Dyke has managed his own capital out of his family office, Van Dyke Holdings, since its founding in 2013. Since 2003, Mr. Van Dyke has served as a Director of American Banknote Corp., a secure payment, credit card and documents company and since 2015 as a Director of GCH, Inc., the parent company of the Willie’s Reserve brand, the namesake cannabis brand of Willie Nelson. He is a former director of TelCove, Inc. (from 2005 to 2006), a telecom provider, and Great Destinations, Inc. (from 2013 to 2016), a timeshare sales business. Mr. Van Dyke graduated from the University of Kentucky with his BBA in Finance. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a member of the Association for Investment Management and Research and the Society of International Business Fellows.

Emily Paxhia, 37
Director

Ms. Paxhia is a co-founder and Managing Director of Poseidon Investment Management, which has two private funds dedicated to cannabis and hemp related investments, and has served in such role since 2013. The Poseidon team launched its first fund in 2014, and has been actively investing in the cannabis industry since that time, recently launching a later-stage cannabis and hemp fund in October 2017. Poseidon has over 30 portfolio companies across several verticals in the industry in the United States and abroad. In her role as co-founder of Poseidon, Ms. Paxhia participates in portfolio-wide investment decisions and market research, interacts with management of portfolio companies, monitors their performance, serves as a primary negotiator for approved transactions, maintains industry business relationships to generate on-going deal flow and works with external capital providers to gain support for investment financing. She is currently a director of Dope Media (from 2016 to present), a brand and publishing company, Tradiv, Inc. (from 2016 to present), a digital B2B wholesale platform, Flowhub, LLC (from 2015 to present), a compliance technology solution, and the Marijuana Policy Project, a marijuana policy reform organization. She also participates as an adviser to several of Poseidon’s portfolio companies such as Wurkforce, Inc., a human capital software platform (from 2016 to present), Baker Technologies, Inc., a consumer engagement and loyalty technology solution (from 2015 to present), and Headset, Inc., a cannabis business intelligence technology (from 2015 to present). Ms. Paxhia graduated from New York University with an M.A. in Psychology and earned a B.A. in Psychology from Skidmore College.

Anthony Georgiadis, 39
Director

Since 2000, Mr. Georgiadis has been a private investor and entrepreneur, serving since 2015 as Partner of Green Thumb Industries, a vertically integrated cannabis retailer licensed in six states. Mr. Georgiadis became involved in the cannabis industry in early 2014 after exploring cannabidiol (CBD) for treatment on his dog, who was epileptic. Since then, Mr. Georgiadis has invested in more than 12 cannabis-related companies including industry leaders such as PAX (vapor technology), Cannasure (insurance), Headset (data analytics) and Baker (customer engagement). Prior to entering the cannabis industry, from 2005 to 2015, Mr. Georgiadis was the Chief Operating Officer of Wendover Art Group, a Florida-based manufacturing business that he helped grow into a nationally prominent manufacturer of wall décor. Prior to that, from 2000 to 2002 he worked as an M&A analyst for Bowles Hollowell Conner & Co., and from 2002 to 2005 as an investment associate for CIVC Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Mr. Georgiadis graduated magna cum laude from Bucknell University with a degree in finance and a minor in mathematics.

W. Jake Bergmann, 31
Director

In 2014, he founded Surterra Holdings Inc., a cannabis operator with vertically integrated licenses in Florida and Texas, and has served as its Chief Executive Officer since its foundation. Mr. Bergmann began his career in 2010 as an investment banking analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, where he worked on acquisitions, structured debt originations and asset dispositions until 2012. In 2010, he also founded Valkyrie Capital, a global macroeconomic-themed investment fund, and served as its Chief Investment Officer until 2014 where he led asset allocation strategy, investment research, fund manager due diligence and direct equity, start-up and real estate investments. Mr. Bergmann holds B.A. degrees in Finance and Real Estate from Georgia State University and a Certificate of Public Finance from the London School of Economics.