CANNAINVESTOR Magazine May / June 2017 | Page 125

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NOW WAS THE TIME TO FOLLOW IN MY GRANDFATHER’S FOOTSTEPS

After his passing I began to think more and more about running my own business one day like my grandfather had many years before. At this juncture, I had been in the commercial real estate industry for a decade and had underwritten and structured hundreds of commercial real estate deals ranging from warehouse, retail/office, co-op, condominium and multifamily buildings. I served as the team leader of eight portfolio managers while managing a portfolio of more than 400 commercial real estate loans in excess of $2 billion dollars. My experience and expertise was commercial real estate, but my mind kept wandering back to the benefits of medical marijuana.

IT WAS AT THIS MOMENT I MADE THE BIG MOVE

I decided now was the time to start my own business and reached out to two of the most successful and knowledgeable coworkers at the Bank. I talked with both of them about the opportunity and we all decided that we were looking at an industry and opportunity that comes along once a lifetime. We decided that week to leave our jobs in our promising careers we had started and create Green Leaf Investment Fund. By combining our decades of experience in commercial real estate with the cannabis industry, we saw a life changing opportunity for us and our investors. We began the rigorous process with the SEC to have our REG A+ Tier II application approved; in July of 2016 we had finally received approval based on our backgrounds and impressive work histories. It took us over a year to receive approval from the SEC, but we had finally achieved another step in reaching our dreams. We are currently fortunate to be one of the only companies operating in this space to receive approval.

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