10 Asian American Cannabis Industry Leaders to Follow in New York

Kristin Jordan is the Founder + CEO of Park Jordan, a commercial real estate brokerage and advisory services firm serving the cannabis industry.  She is also an attorney, drug policy activist, and thought leader. Until recently, Kristin served as the Director of Real Estate at Acreage Holdings where she led efforts with regard to selecting real estate sites for the company's national footprint of cultivation, processing, and dispensary facilities, managing internal and external relationships, and negotiating and administering leases. Kristin is also the founder of the Asian Cannabis Roundtable. Kristin's passion for advancing cannabis reform has led her to found The Maze, the Cannabis Cultural Association, the Cannabis Media Summit, and Cannabis Law Summit.

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Vince has years of experience in enterprise software combined with a passion and understanding of cannabis. Vince and his partner began as delivery drivers, transporting products to dispensaries to build Nabis from the ground up. Nabis is a fully-licensed cannabis wholesale platform with the largest portfolio of cannabis brands in the world, supplying 100% of California’s dispensaries and delivery services. Prior to starting Nabis, Vince began his career as an engineer at Microsoft before founding a software company called Scaphold, which was later acquired by Amazon. 

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Britini Tantalo is a New York CAURD (Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary) applicant for Flower City Dispensary, a minority woman-owned business. In 2014, she entered the legal cannabis industry by starting Metavega Corporation, an indoor growing equipment wholesaler and supplier with her husband and business partner, Jayson Tantalo. Then in 2021, they opened Flower City Hydroponics, a retail brick and mortar selling equipment and supplies needed to facilitate small home grows to large commercial grows. Britni is the co-founder and CEO of the New York CAURD Coalition, an organization geared to providing and facilitating resources to CAURD applicants, and current license holders, with plans to expand to social equity applicants. 

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Anne Forkutza is the head of market expansion at Dutchie, a cannabis technology platform that was selected by NY to provide free POS services to social equity dispensaries. Dutchie helps over 5,500 dispensaries across North America stay compliant by providing them with point of sale, ecommerce, payments, and insurance. Anne is a board member of the Asian Cannabis Roundtable and is a chair on the retail and policy committee for the Cannabis Association of New York.  

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Ryan is the Executive Director of the board of NYC NORML. Ryan is well known as a passionate industry professional within New York’s cannabis community. He worked previously in the New York State Assembly, first as a Community Liaison in Mount Kisco, and then a brief stint as the District Office Director for Assemblyman David Buchwald. After politics, Ryan began working in cannabis account management, advertising and marketing. 

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Dr. Junella Chin has been a national leader in integrative medicine for over 20 years. She has created medical cannabis protocols for the industry and internationally accepted methods for cannabinoid formulations, research, education, and training programs. She is currently a professor at New York University and Syracuse University teaching Cannabis Health and Science and is the Vice Chairperson for the Cannabis Advisory Board for the New York State Office of Cannabis Management. 

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Steven is a cannabis entrepreneur, advocate, and educator. He is the creator of a lifestyle brand called QuadDeuceNil, which is Latin for 420. The brand was his attempt to encapsulate the culture and legalization efforts of the New York City cannabis community. Along with the lifestyle brand, he is the co-founder of Come Back Daily, a prestigious CBD retail location. He is currently co-founder of Lettuce Print, a cannabis friendly marketing and packaging company. 

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The senator made history in 2020 as the first Asian American elected to state office from upstate New York, and the first state senator in decades to graduate from Rochester City School District (RCSD). Senator Cooney serves as the Chair of the Committee on Procurement and Contracts and Chair of the Subcommittee on Cannabis. In 2021, he was named co-chair of the Marijuana Task Force for the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus and he was instrumental in passing landmark legislation to legalize adult-use recreational marijuana. He remains a steadfast supporter of New York’s cannabis industry, pushing for policy and legislation that will improve the supply chain and make success more attainable for license holders. 

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Lulu Tsui is a cannabis entrepreneur and the co-founder of ontherevel. Lulu grew up in Oregon, as a first-generation Chinese-American. Lulu has a deep understanding and history of plant medicines, including cannabis. She spent years working in tech for companies such as Mastercard, Bloomberg LP and McGraw-Hill, until some friends who worked in the legal cannabis industry reached out for some help with their tracking software. After 6 years of hard work focused on New York, Lulu and her partner Jacobi have built ontherevel to be the trusted resource for the people. They have curated a dedicated team of strategic partners to prepare our communities for New York adult-use cannabis market opportunities. ontherevel was formed to highlight the diverse people that have been and are currently building the cannabis industry. Today, ontherevel produces regular online content and in-person experiences and events to highlight the business opportunities in the cannabis industry.

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Mona Zhang is the states cannabis policy reporter for POLITICO Pro. Previously, she was the founder and editor of the cannabis newsletter Word on the Tree. She also spent four years covering the cannabis beat as a freelance journalist for Forbes, The Outline, High Times and more. 

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