DIRECTORS - ADVISORY BOARD - SENIOR EXECUTIVES
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CARY STYNES LLB (MELB.) MAICD
Director – Co-Founder, and Executive Chairman (Melbourne, Australia)
Cary Stynes is one of the co-founders and is Executive Chairman of the Company. He oversees the day-to-day operations of the Company and investment strategy of the business.
He holds a current legal practicing certificate and specialises in advising start-up companies, raising seed and early-stage capital and arranging the listing of companies on the ASX. He was previously a lawyer with international law firm Minter Ellison before establishing his own law firm which he has operated for over 25 years.
In 1994 he co-founded media and advertising company, Media and Entertainment Group Limited which listed on the ASX in 1995 and expanded throughout Australia as well as into Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and South America. That company was ultimately acquired by CPH Limited (Kerry Packer) in 1999.
Since 2000 he has arranged the ASX listing and been the Chief Executive Officer of ASX listed Software Communication Group, organised the restructuring and recapitalization and became Managing Director of CBD Online, subsequently CBD Energy Limited and The Swish Group Limited. He is also a former Non-Executive Director of Traffic Technologies Limited, MCM Entertainment Limited, Teys Limited (now OAR Resources Limited), BHG Limited and arranged the ASX listing and was General Counsel for USA (Hollywood) based digital media and advertising company engage:BDR Limited. He also sat on the Board of children’s cancer charity The Koala Foundation.
He has in various capacities arranged the restructuring, re-capitalisation, IPO’s and RTO’s and conducted capital raisings for a number of Australian and international company’s listed on the ASX in the media and technology, infrastructure, mining, retail, agriculture and and related sectors and sat on a number of private and public Company boards for over 25 years .
JOE WICKER JR
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer – (USA)
Joe Wicker has a background in finance and economics and has a been a business owner and entrepreneur for over 25 years. He has experience in a variety of markets and expertise in develop and implement strategies to maximise business efficiency and profitability.
He became involved in the CBD hemp industry and has used his extensive experience in business development, real estate and mortgage banking to acquire properties, create commercial partnerships with large agricultural farmers and develop a vertical integration strategy for the hemp industry.
Joe is responsible for identifying and acquiring key asset purchases and maintaining a consistent flow of farming inventory, production, processing and sales pipelines. He has designed and implemented processes to support the businesses growth and build and maintain contacts and relationships, He implements marketing systems and processes, that identify new customer markets and developed various sales approaches for those markets.
Jason Oran – Director of Farming Operations USA (Texas, USA)
Jason Oran joined the USA Army National Guard in 1999. After his military service in the army he worked as a United Nations and State Department defence contractor for 5 years where he led several units of contractors through various countries providing security for foreign diplomats.
After he left the military and government service he commenced working in farming and construction. He helped develop three separate construction firms and was involved in managing their operations for 8 years.
He subsequently purchased a farm in Colorado and began Hemp farming in 2016. He focussed on permaculture, developing responsible farming techniques which leave the soil and environment better than before use. He believes that there is no better crop for the planet than hemp.
He manages the Company’s seed and plant genetic programmes and farming operations on the Company’s farms in the USA and consults on the Company’s Australian farming operations.
Jack Stynes – Non Executive Director (Australia)
Jack Stynes, in addition to being a Non-Executive Director of the Company is a consultant to the Company and manages of the design and marketing services and social media for the Company.
He also owns and operates an independent creative and graphic design business, Dynamic Marketing, and provides marketing and design services and consults to a number of company’s in the food and beverage, fashion and media and agricultural sectors.
Graeme Macdonald – Executive Director of Farming Operations Australia (NSW, Australia)
Graeme Macdonald heads up the Company’s joint venture farming operations in Australia. He established Macdonald AG in 1994 and along with his family has steadily grown the southern NSW farming operations to over 12,000 acres. He is Managing Partner of the mixed irrigated and dry-land farming operation in the Murray Irrigation District in Deniliquin NSW. He has a background in mechanical engineering and has overseen the implementation of an on-farm efficiency programme which encompassed development of 5000 acres of efficient overhead irrigation.
Macdonald Agriculture is a third generation farming family. In 2011 they converted 5000 acres of flood irrigation to efficient overhead irrigation allowing the opportunity to diversify their cropping opportunities. The Macdonald family operation was at one point the largest rice grower in the Riverina. They run a mixed operation of wheat, barley, canola, corn and sheep and also service the local area as agricultural contractors specialising in spray and harvest operations. The business utilises precision agriculture across its fleet of machinery and are a zero till farming operation. He strives for for maximum efficiency of water and land use and are constantly exploring better ways of working efficiently with the environment .
Graeme is passionate about pioneering the development of the CBD hemp industry in Australia and excited about the many benefits the crop offers for a sustainable farming future.
Nikola Sonerson – Executive Director and Assistant Legal Counsel (Melbourne, Australia)
Nikola Sonerson is an Australian Lawyer and holds a current legal practicing certificate. She was educated at Victoria University and holds both a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts. She majored in Fine Arts and minored in Communications in her Arts studies. She also has a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice from the Victorian College of Law.
Nikola provides a wide range of legal and commercial services to the Company both in Australia as well as the USA and Europe. She has previous work experience in compensation law and has interned in the Victorian Magistrates Courts with Victorian legal Aid. She utilises her customer service and sales skills which she gained through previous roles and opportunities promoting and representing large Australian and International brands at major events. Nikola is responsible for obtaining and maintaining al of the company’s licenses and permits for its Australian operations and its International trading licenses and permits.
EXECUTIVES, SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Rhonda Peoples – Vice President of Sales (Florida, USA)
Rhonda Peoples has spent over 30 years in a range of senior executive sales roles. She has attended the Ford School of Finance and Insurance, the Dale Carnegie Sales and Marketing Education course, the Landmark Worldwide Organizational Leadership-Communication Mastery course and obtained experience at Codebreaker Technologies
She has considerable professional experience in sales communication, in fast-paced, dynamic sales environments. She has expertise in turning cold calls into successful selling relationships and is an accomplished sales manager offering high performance ability and leads the Company’s development and implementation of superior sales strategies. She has an extensive track record of identifying and creating profitable business opportunities, qualifying authentic prospects and cultivating strong partnerships as well as demonstrated expertise in team leadership and development.
Prior to joining Botanic Wellness to head up the USA sales team she worked with Performance Partners as VP of sales and business development and at Royal Automotive Group for 22 years as corporate finance manager
James Mather – ONC / HNC Mechanical Design Engineering – CEO Botanic Wellness and Botanic Bioplastics (United Kingdom)
James was educated at the Manchester Metropolitan University and achieved a Distinction in Mechanical Design Engineering. He is a former Chief Executive Officer of Medi-Kingdom Limited which was awarded the 1st licence on the African continent to cultivate, manufacture and export cannabis globally for medical purposes.
James Mather is an experienced entrepreneur with over 30 year’s experience running various enterprises in a number of executive capacities. He has also been a Non-Executive Director in a number of other businesses, developing corporate strategies having extensive knowledge in the global hemp/CBD industry from founding to corporate mergers and acquisitions.
Michael Morris – Manager European Operations (Spain)
Michael is an experienced Executive, General Manager and multi-site manager responsible for the Company’s European operations with specific responsibility for developing various European markets, delivering increased sales, regional profitability and optimum business efficiency. He has managed a number of companies in varied industries, in the UK, European and Middle Eastern markets for over 30 years.
He has significant experience in financial management and is focused on identifying, developing and implementing best practice operations in the Company’s European operations through his team leadership and results focus.
Stuart Parry B. Bus Marketing – Senior Plastic Product Consultant (Australia)
Stuart Parry has over 30 years experience in the plastics industry in injection moulding, manufacturing, product design, material specification, tool design and procurement.
He commenced his career at Bostik as marketing manager in the injection moulding division and subsequently was employed by Nestle and has wide experience with most injection moulding polymers within Australia and internationally.
He has operated a promotional marketing company specialising in plastic products for 30 business and has previously been a manufacturer and supplier of plastic packaging to Unilever and Nestle internationally and with the Greens Foods (Australia) for over 25 years
Stuart has been engaged as its senior plastics consultant to guide the Company’s hemp bioplastics product and marketing strategy.
Campbell Knott – Marketing Manager
Started his career at Advertising Agency J Wallter Thompson in the strategy and creative departments. He progressed to Worldstar Television producing television programming for free to air networks 7, 9 and ten that included light entertainment series, live to air broadcast and made for television documentaries.
Since, Campbell has developed retention and attraction programs for NAB and St George HNW customers, a third party nutritional endorsement stamp for guidelines on children’s food products and produced marketing campaigns, provided business development, strategy, content and or social media as well as campaign analytics for the likes of BMW, Audi, Holden, Cbus, Cadbury, BP/ Castrol, NAB, Dulux SPC Ardmona, and Kraft Foods. Campbell brings strategic thinking, creative discipline and a business development aptitude to the business.