DenisCannabis CFO with an efficient and hands-on leadership style
Relevant Skills
Implementing new systems under tight deadlines, leading acquisitions, minimizing unnecessary liabilities
Expertise Summary
Denis’s first big success in the cannabis industry was implementing a mid-market cloud-based ERP system for a cannabis company.
They had a tight deadline and needed to transition to a new system within 3 months and do it during its first year of the public company audit.
Denis was the primary resource managing the company’s audit and balanced this with a successful implementation of a cloud-based financial management platform along with an implementation consultant.
The system served the company well for 6 years until graduating to a system more tailored to inventory and manufacturing functions.
He continued to be the system champion by building out workflows, system controls, and reporting using reference material available within the system help functions.
Denis led the acquisition of a 5-store cannabis retail chain.
This was a transformative acquisition as it was directly accretive to EBITDA and drove scale and leverage for the company’s vertically produced flower, vape, and edibles products.
He also led the acquisition of a 4-store chain that closed in the second quarter of 2022 with the goal of further scale.
Denis slowly built out the finance function at a cannabis company from 2016 through 2018 from 1 to 8 FTEs.
He added much-needed stability and regimen to the existing short-tenured team and maintained limited turnover through the 2020 audit in 2021.
His unique roll-up-your-sleeves, priority-driven servant leadership style motivates lean teams, tackling broad functional scopes while staying focused on the important details.
Denis led the implementation of a strategic approach to 280E taxation aimed at minimizing the onerous impacts of the code section within the bounds of well-documented and reasonably defensible tax position.
This limited the accumulation of unnecessary tax liabilities on the balance sheet while avoiding uncertain tax position disclosures.
Legal management and secretarial functions were insourced in 2020, led largely by Denis’s office.
This led to an increased focus on accretive transactions and a rational approach to resolving minor legal disputes to drive focus toward forward-looking business progress instead of legacy conflicts.
It also minimized legal expenditures and maintained reasonable levels of governance and disclosure.