The Cannabist Company announced today that, effective immediately, the company’s Board of Directors has appointed David Hart, previously the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer, as the new Chief Executive Officer. The Board also appointed Jesse Channon, previously the company’s Chief Commercial Officer, as President. Nicholas Vita will continue to serve as a director of the company.
Vita co-founded The Cannabist Company, formerly Columbia Care, in 2012 when he became the company’s first employee. He has served as its Chief Executive Officer since then. Under his leadership, the company has grown to thousands of employees, encompasses 16 fully integrated markets in the U.S., generates more than $500 million in annual revenue, went public on a senior exchange in Canada, and serves countless patients and customers with high-quality products across the national portfolio.
Hart joined The Cannabist Company in 2016 and became Chief Operating Officer in 2018. Prior to joining The Cannabist Company, Hart served as Chief Operating Officer of Abyrx, a venture capital-backed medical device company that developed, manufactured, and commercialized a portfolio of intraoperative cross specialty hemostats. Prior to his time at Abyrx, Hart was Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer at Alpine Capital, a family investment office for the Ranawat Orthopedic Group at the Hospital for Special Surgery, where he was responsible for capital allocations, direct private investments, and all healthcare investments. Hart was also previously the Partner and Head of Healthcare Equity Investments at Apelles Investment Management. David started his career in the financial services industry in the Mergers and Acquisitions groups at Thomas Weisel Partners and Duff & Phelps. David has an MBA from Columbia University and is a graduate of Duke University.
Channon joined The Cannabist Company in December 2019 as Chief Growth Officer. Channon is an accomplished and award-winning leader with a background in developing transformative technologies and digital marketing platforms, having advised and worked with some of the largest brands and agencies in the world. A member of the founding team at PageLever, a Y Combinator-backed company, Channon oversaw all revenue and partnerships, working with companies such as YouTube, Microsoft, Intel and Toyota to build one of the first real-time applications on Facebook’s API and earning certification in the first wave of Preferred Marketing Developers. In 2013, PageLever sold to Unified, a New York City-based Ad Tech company, where Channon spent six years on the senior management team. After Unified, Channon served as Chief Revenue Officer for Social Native, a custom content marketplace. Jesse also serves on the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board for the Harbert School of Business at his alma mater Auburn University.
