Oakland-based cannabis retailer appoints industry veteran CFO

Dive Brief:

Tom DiGiovanni, former finance chief at a high-end cannabis supplier, will take over as CFO of Harborside Inc., an Oakland, California and Toronto, Ontario-based cannabis enterprise, the company announced Monday. Keith Li, CFO until DiGiovanni takes over, will remain at Harborside as vice president of finance.
In the new role, DiGiovanni will work to preserve, scale and expand capital despite the illegality of Harborside’s products at the federal level, as well as in 17 states, the company said. DiGiovanni said he looks forward to driving “strong financial discipline and [navigating] the continuously-changing financial and legislative environment, both in California [and] nationally."
DiGiovanni, both a veteran CFO and veteran cannabis insider, was most recently a founding partner and CFO of Canndescent, a high-end, vertically integrated Santa Barbara, California-based cannabis growing and supplying company.

Dive Insight:

DiGiovanni is one of several new executive Q4 hires at Harborside. Last month, Peter Bilodeau, chairman of the board, was appointed interim CEO, replacing Andrew Berman, who had stepped down. Harborside also named a new COO of cultivation and manufacturing and added a chief retail officer and an HR leader.

During DiGiovanni’s tenure at Canndescent, the startup grew into a successful luxury grower, operating and supplying dispensaries in about a dozen states. DiGiovanni managed accounting and financial reporting functions and helped implement banking, financing and cash management procedures.

Interim CEO Bilodeau said DiGiovanni has the experience to help Harborside grow. "We ... believe his financial acumen and cannabis background will have an immediate impact on our continued growth, and more importantly in these tougher markets, our bottom line profitability," he said. "We believe it is important that our CFO be boots on the ground in the heart of our day-to-day operations working out of our corporate headquarters in Oakland."

Subject to the Canadian Securities Exchange’s approvals, DiGiovanni will start on December 9.

Representatives for DiGiovanni and for Harborside did not respond to requests for comment.