Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Tuesday, December 10 2019 - 08:22
AsiaNet
Canopy Growth Announces David Klein as New Chief Executive Officer
SMITHS FALLS, Ontario, Dec. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

-- Mark Zekulin to Step Down Within Current Year as Planned

Canopy Growth Corporation ("Canopy Growth" or the "Company") (TSX: WEED) (NYSE: 
CGC) is pleased to announce that effective January 14, 2020, David Klein has 
been appointed as the Company's Chief Executive Officer.

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David brings a wealth of expertise to this role, having served in a number of 
senior leadership capacities over the past 14 years at Constellation Brands. 
His capabilities include extensive CPG and beverage alcohol industry 
experience, strong financial orientation, and experience operating in highly 
regulated markets in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe. David is an 
experienced strategist with a deep understanding of how to build enduring 
consumer brands while leveraging operational scale across a dispersed 
production footprint. He is a strong leader with a proven track record of 
developing diverse and high performing teams.

In his current role as executive vice president and chief financial officer at 
Constellation Brands, David oversees all aspects of the company's finance 
operations, all mergers and acquisitions, as well as the company's information 
technology function. He is widely respected among members of the U.S. 
investment community, earning recognition as a top CFO by Institutional 
Investor magazine the past three years. David serves as a member of 
Constellation Brands' executive management committee. He has served on the 
Canopy Growth Board of Directors for over a year and is presently Canopy 
Growth's Board Chair. This familiarity with the Company's current leadership 
team and strategy will allow David to integrate quickly, a major benefit in the 
fast-moving cannabis sector.

"Canopy Growth sits at the forefront of one of the most exciting new market 
opportunities in our lifetime," said Klein. "Thanks to the efforts of Mark and 
the entire team at Canopy Growth, no company is better positioned to win in the 
emerging cannabis market. I look forward to working with the team to build on 
the foundation that has been laid, to develop brands that strongly resonate 
with consumers, and to capture the market opportunity before us. Together we 
will drive sustainable, industry-leading growth that benefits employees, 
shareholders and the communities in which we operate."

The appointment of David Klein follows a thorough recruitment process overseen 
by a special Hiring Committee of the Board using global recruitment company 
Heidrick & Struggles, which saw a wide variety of exceptional candidates vetted 
and interviewed. David will step down from all other positions he currently 
holds, remaining a member of the Canopy Board of Directors. The Company intends 
to appoint a new Chairperson upon David's effective date as CEO. 

Consistent with the previously announced transition plan, with a new CEO 
identified Mark Zekulin will be stepping down from his role as CEO and 
resigning his seat on the Board of Directors of Canopy effective December 20, 
2019.  As a founding employee of Canopy Growth (then Tweed Marijuana Inc.), 
Mark was instrumental in building Canopy into what it is today first in the 
role of President, then President and Co-CEO, and finally as CEO.

"It has been an incredible six years at Canopy Growth, and I have witnessed the 
team and Company grow from five people in an abandoned chocolate factory, to 
thousands of people across five continents," said Zekulin. "Canopy today is 
positioned to win with the resources, infrastructure, team, and award-winning 
culture needed to succeed. It has truly been an honour to be part of building a 
unique, Canadian success story like Canopy, and I look forward to seeing the 
Company continue to evolve and grow under David's leadership."

Here's to Future Growth.

About Canopy Growth Corporation
Canopy Growth (TSX:WEED, NYSE:CGC) is a world-leading diversified cannabis, 
hemp and cannabis device company, offering distinct brands and curated cannabis 
varieties in dried, oil and Softgel capsule forms, as well as medical devices 
through Canopy Growth's subsidiary, Storz & Bickel GMbH & Co. KG. From product 
and process innovation to market execution, Canopy Growth is driven by a 
passion for leadership and a commitment to building a world-class cannabis 
company one product, site and country at a time. Canopy Growth has operations 
in over a dozen countries across five continents.

Canopy Growth's medical division, Spectrum Therapeutics is proudly dedicated to 
educating healthcare practitioners, conducting robust clinical research, and 
furthering the public's understanding of cannabis, and has devoted millions of 
dollars toward cutting edge, commercializable research and IP development. 
Spectrum Therapeutics sells a range of full-spectrum products using its 
colour-coded classification Spectrum system as well as single cannabinoid 
Dronabinol under the brand Bionorica Ethics.

Canopy Growth operates retail stores across Canada under its award-winning 
Tweed and Tokyo Smoke banners. Tweed is a globally recognized cannabis brand 
which has built a large and loyal following by focusing on quality products and 
meaningful customer relationships.

From our historic public listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York 
Stock Exchange to our continued international expansion, pride in advancing 
shareholder value through leadership is engrained in all we do at Canopy 
Growth. Canopy Growth has established partnerships with leading sector names 
including cannabis icons Snoop Dogg and Seth Rogen, breeding legends DNA 
Genetics and Green House Seeds, and Fortune 500 alcohol leader Constellation 
Brands, to name but a few. Canopy Growth operates eleven licensed cannabis 
production sites with over 10.5 million square feet of production capacity, 
including over one million square feet of GMP certified production space. For 
more information visit www.canopygrowth.com

Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of 
the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and 
"forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian 
securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and 
information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or 
"does not expect", "is expected", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or 
"does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases 
or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", 
"might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements or 
information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors 
which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Canopy 
Growth or its subsidiaries to be materially different from any future results, 
performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking 
statements or information contained in this news release. Examples of such 
statements include statements with respect to leadership changes and 
transitions. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with 
forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, 
prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or 
implied by such forward-looking information. Examples of such risks are 
contained in the Company's annual information form dated June 27, 2018 and 
filed with Canadian securities regulators available on the Company's issuer 
profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company believes that the 
assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information or 
forward-looking statements in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance 
should not be placed on such information and no assurance can be given that 
such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The 
forward-looking information and forward-looking statements included in this 
news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does 
not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking information 
or forward-looking information to reflect new information, subsequent events or 
otherwise unless required by applicable securities laws.

For further information: Contact: Caitlin O'Hara, Media Relations, 
Caitlin.Ohara@canopygrowth.com, 613-291-3239; Investor Relations: Tyler Burns, 
Tyler.Burns@canopygrowth.com, 855-558-9333 ext. 122

SOURCE  Canopy Growth Corporation