Women to Watch: Megan Godfrey, Judith Schvimmer, Jennifer Guild

Terpene manufacturer Abstrax is winning both critical and commercial success. The California-based business has seen 282% growth in the past three years, was recognized as a Best Workplaces for Innovators by Fast Company in 2024 and was named on the Inc. 5000 in 2024 and 2025. Helping fuel that success and chart its path forward is a trio of women: Judith Schvimmer, Megan Godfrey and Jennifer Guild.

“We are in full growth mode right now,” says Schvimmer, the company’s chief legal officer. “We just built out our headquarters in Irvine, bringing in smart manufacturing capabilities and getting our R&D scientists, quality and labs folks and our marketing and sales teams all under the same roof, and next we’ll finish the customer-facing innovation center.”

On the marketing side, Godfrey says the company is seeing new customer acquisition grow as much as 78% year over year, “which means we were bringing in nearly twice as many new customers as the year before,” Godfrey says.

“Where we’ve really found our sweet spot is education and science,” she says. “Instead of just saying, ‘Here’s a new product, buy it,’ we talk about what we discovered, why it matters to the community and how it can help our customers.”

Godfrey says the company has a history of sharing its research, because if Abstrax is able to help move the greater industry forward, then everyone involved will benefit. Guild, who heads up the regulatory and quality team, presents a prime example of the company doing just that with its work on inhalation safety, which was structured around answering difficult questions rather than predetermined outcomes.

“That work ultimately became a multiyear, multimillion-dollar research effort involving independent toxicologists and accredited laboratories to evaluate the chemistry, toxicology and real-world aerosol behavior of ingredients used in inhalable cannabis products,” Guild says. “I’m particularly proud of that because it represents what I think regulatory leadership should look like in an emerging industry.”

Schvimmer, a transplant from the wine and craft beer industries, echoes the call for consumer safety as cannabis regulations often parallel alcohol for good reason.

“Alcoholic beverage and cannabis face some similar headwinds right now, with some decreases or changes in consumption trends. They are also all highly regulated, and you need to navigate federal, state, local and international regulations (sometimes while they’re still being written and rewritten),” Schvimmer says. “And importantly, these products are all meant for people’s pleasure, which are enjoyable spaces to work within, but they also come with a high responsibility of care for consumer and public safety.”