Judging The Emjays
How Are The Winners Selected?
The judging and voting process for the Emjays awards has started for the six finalist in each category. You may be wondering how the winners will be chosen so we thought we would break it all down for you.
We pride ourselves on having a fair and transparent judging process. This starts with the important first step of not allowing any kind of outside influence on the competition, specifically having a rule against any Main Sponsors or Title Sponsors participating in the competition.
We made an investment in working with a third-party platform to host the public voting portion of the awards. This is an important aspect in order to avoid having fraudulent voting through bots and other bad actors. We also email verify each user to ensure votes are coming from real active email accounts. You can vote once per day per category.
Additionally we will have a data partner scrub through the tens of thousands of votes to ensure nothing looks out of place.
The final judging component will be comprised of a panel of industry professionals who will be looking at each nominee through a consumer’s lens. This will consist of researching the companies reputation, online presence and overall consumer sentiment towards the product or service.
The panel of judges will be made up of a conglomerate of media and industry veterans. The winners will be chosen from the blended score between the public vote and the internal judging by our panel.
Meet the Judges of the 2024 Emjays
CEO - National Holistic Healthcare
Dr. Chanda Macias
Dr. Chanda Macias, MBA is the CEO of National Holistic Healthcare, the medical cannabis cultivator, processor and dispenser in the United States with expansion globally. Initiating her expansion to Germany as Deutschland Holistic GmbH in a marketplace with developing regulatory laws, Dr. Macias will continue to focus on delivering affordable medical cannabis healthcare options.
Dr. Macias has spent 15+ years developing her knowledge of medical cannabis to have a positive impact on patient lives. Dr. Macias contributes her success by way of education on ailment strain alignment, aligning a medical cannabis strain with a specific condition or ailment. Dr. Macias started her career in the flagship medical cannabis
dispensary in Washington DC, National Holistic™ Healing Center (nationalholistic.com) in Dupont Circle.
Dr. Macias educates women entrepreneurs and patients through her outreach platform as the Chairwoman of the Board of Managers and CEO for Women Grow. Women Grow (womengrow.com) is the global leader in connecting, educating, inspiring, and
empowering the next generation of women leaders in the Cannabis and Hemp Industry.
Dr. Macias is the Vice-Chair of the National Cannabis Roundtable (NCR) Board. NCR is dedicated to promoting common sense federal legislation, tax equity, and financial services reform.
Dr. Macias earned a Ph.D. in Cellular Biology from Howard University focusing on cancer research. She earned her MBA from Rutgers University in Supply Chain Management. As a Research Scientist, Dr. Macias investigated oral diseases and possible treatment options at Colgate-Palmolive Company, a Fortune 500 Company.
She contributed to the launch of several billion-dollar brands. Her innovations have resulted in numerous scientific achievements including publications, compilations, U.S.
and Global Patients (World Intellectual Property Organization).
President - New Holland Group
Jamie L. Pearson
Jamie Pearson is a keynote speaker, writer, accredited investor, board member and highly respected leader in the cannabis industry. Jamie’s “in the trenches” operational success and deep, global relationships led her to be coined “Wonder Woman” in the 2023 Women of Influence issue of Cannabis Now Magazine and twice, one of the most influential women in cannabis by High Times. Jamie has been a prosperous investor in global real estate on three continents. She studied German at the University of Wuppertal and has split her time between the two countries for over 25 years. She is generous with her time and knowledge and currently sits on the advisory
boards of Dope Drinks, The Cannabis Summit, Marley One, Cellotex Dev Ltd, and the Global Cannabis Network Collective (GCNC).
Jamie founded and leads The New Holland Group (NHG), a global consulting firm serving clients with international business development & strategy, operations, branding & marketing, effective capital raising, executive coaching, cross border IP
licensing, celebrity partnerships, and financial turnarounds.
Before NHG, Jamie spent seven years, including three as the President & CEO, of Bhang Inc. [CSE:BHNG] one of the world’s most-awarded infused edible brands, famous for its infused chocolate bars. She led the company’s diverse executive team, managed the global expansion plan, ran the capital markets division, and was the face
of the brand – catapulting Bhang from a California favorite to a multi-national
phenomenon. When Jamie exited Bhang, the brand was being distributed in 7 US states and 10 countries through licensing deals with the likes of Trulieve, [CSE:TRUL], Indiva [TSX:NDVA] and Origin House [CSE:OH] (now Cresco). Jamie served four years
as the Vice Chairman of Bhang’s Board and served on the audit committee.
Jamie speaks in the areas of business trends in hemp and cannabis, leadership, global brand expansion, ESG, IP & brand licensing, win-win deal structuring, and celebrity partnerships.
Editor-in-Chief of Cannabis & Tech Today
Charles Warner
Cannabis & Tech Today is part of five magazines under the Innovative Properties Worldwide umbrella.
IPW is a veteran owned media company out of Denver, where Warner is responsible for overseeing the companies many areas of specialization to include publishing five magazines and three podcasts. Also at IPW are services like custom publishing, sponsorship sales and onsite activation, audience development, sales
training, and media placement.
Charles joined IPW in 2009 after eight years as the CEO of Mainstream Media International. MMI, out of Clearwater, Florida was the largest college bowl game publisher in the country and worked with the BCS National Championship. While there, Charles helped develop an assortment of cross-platform partnerships with some of the biggest sports properties in the world to include the PGA, NASCAR, LPGA,
NCAA March Madness and the Super Bowl.
Prior to the sports marketing gigs, Charles served in the US Army in a rapid deployment, light infantry
unit as an M-60 team leader. While serving, he was decorated with many awards for exemplary service. After the Army, Charles studied journalism at Spokane Falls Community College where he graduated with a prestigious degree in liberal arts.
With a passion for all things innovation and science and an eye for a good story, Charles became the Editor-in-Chief of the national quarterly Innovation & Tech Today twelve years ago and has helped it grow into one of the most beloved niche publications of it's kind in both print and digital format.
Since then IPW launched Residential Tech Today, Sustainability Today, STEM Today, and Cannabis & Tech Today.
To help cannabis companies during the pandemic, Charles and his friends launched the Emerge Virtual Cannabis Conference on the most cutting edge, 3D VR platform and it has steadily grown into a great place to network, do business and get great content all from the comfort of your own desk.
MJBiz Magazine Editor
Omar Sacirbey
Omar Sacirbey is a veteran reporter who joined MJBiz in 2015. He serves as the editor of MizBizMagazine, which he’s helped win multiple Trade Association of Business Publications International awards. Before joining MJBiz, Omar was an award-winning correspondent for the Religion News Service. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and other publications. Before journalism, Omar was a Bosnian diplomat, serving at the United Nations in New York, Sarajevo, and The Hague.
Founder - BrandTrust
Angela Pih
Angela Pih is a brand accelerator with decades of experience in cannabis, fashion, beauty, wellness, and premium lifestyle brands. Angela excels at launching, scaling, and transforming brands at industry-leading companies with operational savvy. She served as the Global Chief Marketing Officer at CCELL and spearheaded marketing and innovation at CannaCraft and StateHouse. During her tenure at CannaCraft, Angela led a dynamic team across Marketing, R&D, and Scientific Affairs, launching two new brands and 70 products in 15 months while managing a portfolio of 12 brands. Her marketing leadership was pivotal in Papa & Barkley's dominance in California and its national expansion.
Specializing in high-growth companies poised for national and international expansion, she takes a holistic omnichannel approach to solve business challenges, grow brands, and influence consumer behavior. She was honored with the Green Market Report's 2023 Women's Leadership Award in Science & Research and recognized among the Top 100 Most Influential People in Cannabis by Global Cannabis Times. Angela is a recipient of three Cannabis CLIOs for her work with CannaCraft Academy and Papa & Barkley in addition to being the Jury Chair in 2023.
Angela is an Emerald Cup judge and serves as its Strategic Advisor, she is also on the Board of Advisors at Lucid Green and is an Advisory Board member and Adjunct Professor at Loyola Marymount University's School of Marketing. A nationally recognized marketer, she has been a keynote speaker at the American Marketing Association's annual conference.
Founder/CEO - Cannabis Now
Eugenio Garcia
Eugenio Garcia is CEO and founder of Cannabis Now, a media group that offers reliable, compelling and creative content to today’s cannabis consumer by way of print, digital, broadcast and social mediums. At Cannabis Now, Garcia is closely involved with the editorial process and manages the sales/revenue, distribution, marketing and investment departments.
As a long-time entrepreneur and advocate, Garcia became interested in the space when consulting in the cannabis industry. Realizing the lack of a strong and balanced voice for today’s consumer, Cannabis Now became the solution by focusing on the most relevant news, political happenings, cannabis legislation, horticultural advancements, social change, economic trends and medical information available.
Launched in 2009, Cannabis Now has experienced unparalleled growth, with Garcia’s vision leading the effort in bringing the magazine’s social media reach to over 4 million followers to date, making its social media community one of the largest interactive cannabis communities in the world.
Under Garcia’s leadership, Cannabis Now Magazine has emerged as the first cannabis publication since the 1970s to be widely distributed coast to coast. Garcia has developed high profile retail distribution partnerships for the company’s digital and print expressions, making Cannabis Now the first cannabis magazine in the world to be available on iTunes and to be distributed at airports nationwide through Hudson News. In addition, Cannabis Now is the first nationally distributed cannabis magazine since 1974 to be accepted and sold at Barnes & Nobleacross the country.
Founder - Honeysuckle Media
Ronit Pinto
Ronit Pinto is the publisher and founder of Honeysuckle Media, providing highly-lauded ROI driven services in print, digital, creative and out-of-home. Ronit is co-founder of Honey Mag Films and Honey Studios, CLIO & journalism award-winning creative and film studio houses. Honeysuckle focuses on gender, sexuality, cannabis, expanded healing, and pop culture. Ronit was the first in history to place cannabis and hemp brands on TImes Square billboard.