Cassandra Farrington considers herself a fugitive of Corporate America.
Farrington, a former vice president of banking giant Citigroup, recognized an opening for a business-to-business media and events company in the cannabis space and co-founded Marijuana Business Daily along with Anne Holland in 2011.
“I’m lucky enough not to have a personal story in my background that compelled me to marijuana: no sick child or parent, no friend or sibling affected by a long prison term for a non-violent drug offense, no family members released from military service with PTSD,” she says. “Rather, I saw an opportunity to do what I know I can do well: to help people run their business better. I saw a nascent industry that lacked reliable, unbiased news coverage, was underserved with regard to connections between the business individuals and needed a repository for industry-wide business data.”
In addition to the Marijuana Business Daily website and the accompanying Marijuana Business Magazine, the company also produces the premier conference for cannabis growers and investors. The Marijuana Business Conference & Expo is held in November in Las Vegas every year, and is complemented by a pair of offshoots, MJBizNEXT in the spring and MJBizConINT’L, which debuted in August in Toronto.
Since its inception in 2011, Marijuana Business Daily has racked up an array of accolades.
The company has been named to the Inc. 5000 in each of the past two years (No. 528 in 2017 and No. 837 in 2018), as well as making the Inc. 500 in 2016.
Farrington, the company’s CEO, was recognized in 2016 by Folio magazine as one of the top women in media. MJBizCon made Trade Show Executive Magazine’s list of the 50 fastest-growing trade shows in North America in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Marijuana Business Daily was named the ninth-fastest growing woman-owned company by Women Presidents’ Organization in May 2018.
While the North American cannabis industry has been growing, Farrington is also intrigued by the industry’s global prospects.
“The current trajectory of the industry is all about the international markets,” Farrington says. “With far friendlier regulatory and legal environments outside the United States, the global cannabis business landscape is accelerating quickly and will only continue to gain momentum. Separately, the hemp space is rapidly gaining traction, spurred by cannabinoid research, greater interest in hemp’s industrial applications and advancing public awareness of the wellness benefits of cannabis’ non-psychoactive properties.”
And she’s particularly optimistic about the role of women in the burgeoning, multibillion-dollar industry.
“While women have today become broadly accepted as competent equals in one-on-one situations, most industries retain that legacy male-dominated upper executive playing field,” Farrington says. “In the nascent marijuana industry, that male-dominated hierarchy was never established — and won’t be. As such, I see the marijuana industry as a harbinger of what’s to come in the broader economy as those playing fields are changed by retirements, job changes and other changes.”