XXII - Cannabis Industry's New Mavericks: Two Companies Introduce Fresh Leadership | Benzinga
22nd Century Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: XXII) has named Lawrence (Larry) Firestone as the company’s chairman and CEO.
The Buffalo-based company announced the news on Wednesday shortly after revealing that it will sell "substantially all" of its GVB Biopharma hemp/cannabis operations to Specialty Acquisition Corporation in a $2.25 million deal. Specialty Acquisition, based in Nevada, is an entity affiliated with current GVB employees.
Firestone brings over four decades of enterprise, operations, and financial management experience in both public and private companies, including tenures as CEO, CFO and COO across multiple industry sectors.
Most recently, Firestone served as CFO of Oakland Manager, a privately-held purveyor of cannabis with both retail and wholesale market penetration, and as chairman of FirePower Technology, a privately held manufacturer of ATX power supplies for the IT and instrumentation markets.
He also served as CEO of Eastside Distilling, Inc. (NASDAQ: EAST) and Qualstar Corporation (NASDAQ: QBAK), CFO of Advanced Energy Industries (NASDAQ: AEIS) and Applied Films Corporation (NASDAQ: AFCO).
Firestone praised the company’s team, which he was appointed to lead.
"The team at 22nd Century has created one of the ...