By Renée Hartleib |
It was the Sobey School of Business that brought Tiffany Walsh (BComm 06) and Paul Pedersen (BComm 06) together. Now, nearly twenty years after they first met, business still ties the two together, as do the marriage vows the couple will make to each other next Fall. Sadly, Covid-19 derailed their plans for a Spring 2020 wedding.
Paul is the co-founder and CEO of Nextleaf Solutions, a company that develops patented technology for the extraction and distillation of cannabinoids. And Tiffany founded a law firm called Tiffany & Company Law, which specializes in cannabis law.
This unique pairing of complementary skills has helped them navigate the explosion of the cannabis industry in recent years and emerge at the forefront.
To date, Nextleaf holds 21 issued patents for unique and innovative technology related to the extraction and distillation of THC and CBD from dried cannabis.
“Our patents cover the process of taking lower grade dry cannabis and turning it into a high purity, tasteless, odourless oil that can then be used in all variety of cannabis-infused products,” says Paul. Think gummies, brownies, and canned drinks.
Their customer base is large and made up of provincial retailers across Canada who create and sell cannabis-infused beverages, baked goods, and pharmaceuticals.
The brains behind the science of Nextleaf is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Ryan Ko. “Ryan had already been working in the field for 13 years,” says Paul. “When we met, he had already developed cutting-edge technology and was one of Tiffany’s law clients.”
Nextleaf, which is based in Vancouver, has grown fast, employing 20 full-time staff that include PhD engineers and scientists, and it has also gone public on the Canadian Securities Exchange.
In 2020, the couple is taking their partnership one step further by establishing a cannabis manufacturing facility in North Sydney, Cape Breton. This project is Tiffany’s baby. She and her father co-founded Highlanders Cannabis back in 2017 and purchased the former Keata Pharma plant. They are now awaiting approval from Health Canada for their cannabis manufacturing license. If all goes as planned, Cape Breton will be home to the largest dedicated cannabis processing and manufacturing facility in Canada.
With the plant only 15 minutes from her parents’ home in Sydney Mines, Tiffany really feels like her company has the potential to give back to the place she was born. “We’re very happy to be there and to be welcomed by the community.”
Tiffany reports that the job applications are already pouring in, but she says that once Highlanders’ wholly owned subsidiary Bluenose Labs is cleared by Health Canada to start operations, they will start narrow, hiring 20 staff in the first year and building the business slowly and on their own terms. “Our family has financed the project ourselves up to this point.”
One day in the not-too-distant future, Tiffany plans to provide SMU with internship programs for students. “This will be real, hands-on experience in a licensed facility with professionals in the industry,” she says.
Giving back to their alma mater is important to both Tiffany and Paul, who had excellent experiences at SMU, specifically in the entrepreneurial branch of their Commerce degrees. Paul fondly remembers Dr. Ellen Farrell’s entrepreneur course where students were tasked with starting a business with no more than $10. “That experience taught me that I could create a startup and actually be an entrepreneur for a living. It was the best part of my education.”
The couple has returned to Dr. Farrell’s class four or five times over the years to share their experiences. “I know when I was a student, I found a lot of value in alumni taking the time to come back to their school and talk about their careers,” says Paul. “It’s inspiring.” On one such return trip to SMU in 2012, Paul connected with a graduate, Charles Ackerman, who went on to become the Chief Financial Officer of Nextleaf.
The next time Tiffany and Paul are invited to speak at SMU, the two won’t have to travel as far. They are relocating to Halifax this summer, with plans to open a Nextleaf corporate office in the city.
“We both have such strong ties to Nova Scotia, after five great years of living in Halifax and going to SMU,” they say. “And we’re very committed to our Cape Breton project being a big success.”
