NorCal Cannabis, which plans to build the largest vertically-integrated and direct-to-consumer cannabis platform in California, has hired four executives to lead the company’s product development, marketing strategy and brand activities.
The new hires, hailing from notable brands, are Jeffrey Graham, Chris Gomersall, Alex Lopoukhine and Nish Nadaraja.
“NorCal’s mission of bridging the strong roots and rich heritage of the cannabis industry to its bright future is reinforced by the communal skills and success of our seasoned team of experts in the marketing, retail and branding spaces,” Douglas Cortina, the CEO of NorCal, said in a statement.
Jeffrey Graham, an expert in understanding consumer behavior and marketing effectiveness, was named as vice president business intelligence at NorCal. Graham has built research and analytics teams for various business sectors including those in media, technology and finance. Most notably, he led the research team at The New York Times, where he helped developed the digital subscription model which changed the trajectory of the newspaper’s business.
Graham also served as the head of advertising research for the Americas at Google, where his team created methodologies to better understand digital behavior. Prior to working at Google, he worked at Twitter, where he helped develop the company’s go-to-market strategy and built a research and analytics team which supported the company’s clients worldwide. Most recently, he held an executive role at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, where he managed a global team of researchers and data scientists.
Chris Gomersall joined NorCal as vice president executive creative director. Chris will lead internal and external creative teams across all of NorCal’s verticals and products including branding, design, packaging, content and marketing, retail experiences, strategic partnerships, event activations, and more.
Previously, Chris served as a council board member for Microsoft Gaming Advertising Advisory Council and the American Association of Advertising Agencies Branded Content Committee. Most recently, he led creative strategy at both Facebook and Instagram.
Alex Lopoukhine became the director of brand and product marketing at NorCal. Lopoukhine started his career in the cannabis industry after 10 years in travel, most recently at TripAdvisor where he led global distribution and co-branding initiatives with brands like Google, Kayak, Groupon, Yelp, and more. Prior to TripAdvisor, Lopoukhine helped launch and scale the travel brand of LivingSocial, a competitor of Groupon.
NorCal named Nish Nadaraja as director of retail marketing. Prior to joining the cannabis industry, Nadaraja was the sixth employee at Yelp, where he created the Yelp Elite Squad and was Head of Brand and Community from 2005-2010. Additionally, he has consulted and advised both start-ups and big brands in the Bay Area and has invested in six restaurants.
NorCal Cannabis currently operates production facilities, including more than 100,000 sq. feet of indoor flower canopy, manufacturing, processing, packaging and distribution assets. The company also operates a network of statewide delivery depots and is led by a team of experts having years of cannabis experience in California.
