Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> November 18, 2021
Obie Strickler is the CEO of Grown Rogue International Inc. He founded Canopy Management, LLC in 2015 to consolidate the three medical facilities he had operated since 2006 within one company. Mr. Strickler formed Grown Rogue in late 2016 and entered the Oregon recreational cannabis market with a plan to build a multi-national cannabis brand. Mr. Strickler was successful in building a profitable medical cannabis company and used that foundation to build Grown Rogue. Mr. Strickler has a B.S. in Geology from Southern Oregon University and is also an Oregon Professional Geologist. During the time he was financing and overseeing Canopy’s growth he was also the regional manager for a large multi-service natural resource company before starting his own business in 2011 to provide management services to large natural resource companies primarily in the mining sector. In this role, he was responsible for building and integrating complex technical teams to advance large, world-class, multi-billion-dollar mining projects from exploration through feasibility primarily in base and precious metals. In 2014, Mr. Strickler teamed with aerospace engineers to form HyperSciences, Inc., a platform technology company focused on commercializing hypervelocity technology into a variety of industrial applications. Mr. Strickler helped secure a large contract with one of the world’s larger oil and gas providers to solve deep drilling challenges and moved this project through proof of concept before departing to focus on the opportunities in cannabis full time. Mr. Strickler is taking his production and product innovation experience in the cannabis industry and his integration and execution experience from the natural resource industry to build Grown Rogue into a premier cannabis company. Profile
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TWST: You and your wife started Grown Rogue 15 years ago. Can you share what brought you to the decision to start this company?
Mr. Strickler: