Ascend Wellness Holdings (AWH), one of the largest privately held Cannabis industry companies in the US, has appointed Robin Debiase as Chief People Officer. Hanold Associates’ Partners Ashley Schiele and Kile Hanold led the New York-based search.
AWH owns and operates state-of-the-art cultivation facilities growing 20,000 pounds of award-winning products annually, fully vertically integrated from seed to sale. The company also operates several brands of retail stores across different markets, providing high-quality products in a convenient, high-end shopping experience. It has projected 2020 revenues of $400 million. To support its rapid growth, AWH has raised nearly $200 million in funding through five rounds, including $68 million in its most recent round in August 2020. Investment has come from JM10 Partners, Shire Capital Advisors, Poseidon Asset Management, Salveo Capital and Three Bays Capital.
Debiase most recently served as Vice President People Partner for Weight Watchers (WW) – North America/Latin America Emerging Markets. As AWH’s first Chief People Officer, she will expand the Human Resources function, establishing and delivering a strategy that supports the growing business, the employees and the overall culture. She will partner closely with CEO and founder Abner Kurtin and other executive leaders to deliver on the business’s strategy and goals and provide a point of view on people operations. With more than 700 current employees, AWH plans to scale to 2,000 within the next year and supporting this exponential growth will require a scalable and strategic people function.
