TSX | NYSE: ACB
Darren Karasiuk Promoted to Chief Commercial
Officer and Jill Swainson Promoted to Chief Legal Officer and
Corporate Secretary
EDMONTON,
Feb. 21, 2019 /CNW/ - Aurora Cannabis Inc. (the "Company"
or "Aurora") (NYSE: ACB) (TSX: ACB) (Frankfurt: 21P; WKN: A1C4WM) is pleased to
announce that effective immediately, Mr, Darren Karasiuk, formerly Executive Vice
President Adult Usage, Global, has been promoted to Chief
Commercial Officer. Additionally, the Company has promoted,
effective immediately, Ms. Jill
Swainson, previously Senior Vice President Legal Affairs, to
Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of the Company.
"These appointments reflect the commitment we've made to
continuously strengthen our leadership team as we scale up our
organization while recognizing the tremendous achievements of Jill
and Darren since joining our company," said Terry Booth, CEO of Aurora. "We identified early
on that Darren was instrumental in the success that MedReleaf, and
now Aurora, has had in the development of well-respected brands
which have resonated strongly within both our medical and domestic
consumer markets. His success to date has been an invaluable asset
to Aurora in developing alignment within our organization to
continue driving sustainable business growth."
Mr. Booth added, "Jill has worked with our senior leadership
team since Aurora was formed, leveraging her extensive experience
and legal acumen which has been critical in successfully executing
our business strategy. Throughout her tenure here, she has
demonstrated the highest standard of due care in her ongoing
commitment to achieving Aurora's goals and I'm pleased to recognize
her hard work and numerous accomplishments with this
promotion."
Chief Commercial Officer
Mr. Karasiuk joined the Company through the acquisition of
MedReleaf and has been instrumental in executing Aurora's
successful launch into the Canadian consumer market, achieving
strong brand recognition of the Company's key consumer brands,
Aurora, AltaVie and San Rafael '71. In his new role, Mr. Karasiuk
will be responsible for the company's commercial strategy,
including the development of an aligned organization to drive
sustainable business growth. The role includes oversight of key
customer facing functions including marketing, sales, insights and
analytics, as well as customer service - and strategic linkages
with product development and partnerships. At MedReleaf, Mr.
Karasiuk served as VP Strategy and later SVP and GM, Recreational
Market. Prior to joining MedReleaf, Darren was Vice President,
Insights & Advisory at Deloitte.
Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary
Previously, Ms. Swainson served as Aurora's Senior Vice
President and General Counsel. In this new role, Ms. Swainson will
be responsible for overseeing Aurora's in-house legal team while
minimizing legal risks to Aurora by advising the company's officers
and board members on any legal and regulatory issues. As Corporate
Secretary, Ms. Swainson will be responsible for ensuring the
integrity of Aurora's governance framework, compliance with
statutory and regulatory requirements and implementing decisions
made by the Board of Directors. Prior to joining Aurora in
January 2018 as General Counsel, Ms.
Swainson was a Partner at Brownlee LLP where she handled a variety
of business law matters, including corporate, commercial,
intellectual property, and securities work. In addition to her
general practice of business law, over the past several years she
has developed an expertise in providing general counsel and
advisory services to clients within the heavily regulated and
increasingly complex cannabis industry.
Options and RSU Grant
The Company has awarded Officers of the Company 105,000 options,
pursuant to the Company's Stock Option Plan, exercisable at a price
of $9.43 per common share. The
options shall vest over a period of three years in equal annual
installments. Additionally, the Company has granted 5,000
Restricted Share Units, vesting over three years in annual
installments.
About Aurora
Headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada with funded capacity in excess of 500,000 kg per
annum and sales and operations in 23 countries across five
continents, Aurora is one of the world's largest and leading
cannabis companies. Aurora is vertically integrated and
horizontally diversified across every key segment of the value
chain, from facility engineering and design to cannabis breeding
and genetics research, cannabis and hemp production, derivatives,
high value-add product development, home cultivation, wholesale and
retail distribution.
Highly differentiated from its peers, Aurora has established a
uniquely advanced, consistent and efficient production strategy,
based on purpose-built facilities that integrate leading-edge
technologies across all processes, defined by extensive automation
and customization, resulting in the massive scale production of
high quality product at low cost. Intended to be replicable and
scalable globally, our production facilities are designed to
produce cannabis of significant scale, with high quality,
industry-leading yields, and low per gram production costs. Each of
Aurora's facilities is built to meet EU GMP standards, and its
first production facility, the recently acquired MedReleaf Markham
facility, and its wholly owned European medical cannabis
distributor Aurora Deutschland have achieved this level of
certification.
In addition to the Company's rapid organic growth and strong
execution on strategic M&A, which to date includes 15 wholly
owned subsidiary companies – MedReleaf, CanvasRX, Peloton
Pharmaceutical, Aurora Deutschland, H2 Biopharma, Urban Cultivator,
BC Northern Lights, Larssen Greenhouses, CanniMed Therapeutics,
Anandia Labs, HotHouse Consulting, MED Colombia, Agropro, Borela,
and ICC Labs – Aurora is distinguished by its reputation as a
partner and employer of choice in the global cannabis sector,
having invested in and established strategic partnerships with a
range of leading innovators, including: Radient Technologies Inc.
(TSXV: RTI), Hempco Food and Fiber Inc. (TSXV: HEMP), Cann Group
Ltd. (ASX: CAN), Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (CSE: MWM), Choom
Holdings Inc. (CSE: CHOO), Capcium Inc. (private), Evio Beauty
Group (private), Wagner Dimas (private), CTT Pharmaceuticals (OTCC:
CTTH), Alcanna Inc. (TSX: CLIQ) and High Tide Inc. (CSE:HITI).
Aurora's Common Shares trade on the TSX and NYSE under the
symbol "ACB", and are a constituent of the S&P/TSX Composite
Index.
For more information about Aurora, please visit our investor
website, investor.auroramj.com
Neither the TSX, NYSE
nor their Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in
the policies of the TSX and NYSE) accepts responsibility for the
adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Terry Booth, CEO
Aurora Cannabis Inc.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release includes statements containing certain
"forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable
securities law ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking
statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan",
"continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate",
"estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other
similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions
"may" or "will" occur and include, but are not limited to the
variety of cannabis products that Aurora will supply to the adult
use market.. These statements are only predictions. Various
assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the
projections contained in the forward-looking statements throughout
this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the
opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are
made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and
other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ
materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any
intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.
SOURCE Aurora Cannabis Inc.