Careers

Corné Melissen is the Interim CEO of Phoena. In March 2021 Corné founded Kenzoll, a Netherlands-based investment firm. Kenzoll in 2022 acquired a 90% equity interest in Phoena Holdings.

Corné has been in the private equity industry since 1991 when he started working for Dutch private equity firm Alpinvest. In parallel to his business career, he served as a reserve-officer in the Netherlands Army. He was mobilized as active-duty officer in various domestic and overseas deployments.

Since 2006 until 2021 he was a partner at Dutch private equity firm Ramphastos Investments. In 2021 Kenzoll carved out part of the Ramphastos portfolio (mostly energy and technology assets) in a buy-out.  Corné still serves as a non-executive director on the board of some Ramphastos owned investee companies, like US biometrics firm Lumenvox and upstream oil firm Mazarine Energy.

Corné has been involved in an extensive list of mostly special situation acquisitions across the globe, ranging from technology, energy, mining and retail (HEMA). Mr. Melissen holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Amsterdam.

Dan Hogan is a seasoned executive with over 40 years of experience in consumer products companies. Hogan has strong operations, finance and executive leadership skills, as well as extensive experience in restructuring, remediation, continuous improvement, and strategic development.

Hogan is the former Head of Strategic Priorities at Phoena. His career spans multiple senior roles, including CEO of eBags Inc., COO and CFO of the Coleman Company, as well as senior international roles at Georgia-Pacific and World Kitchen.

Greg Guyatt has more than 20 years of experience leading high-performing teams across the cannabis, CPG, retail, pharmaceutical and private equity sectors.

Guyatt is the current CEO of Phoena, following roles as our CFO, CFO of GreenSpace Brands Inc. and increasingly senior roles at Sears Canada.

Guyatt has extensive knowledge across governance, strategic planning, risk management, financial reporting and treasury, as well as a wealth of M&A and capital markets expertise, having begun his career at Deloitte, before spending several years as an investment banker with UBS in the United Kingdom.

David Blair is the Chief Financial Officer of Phoena. Mr. Blair joined the business in October 2019 as the VP of Finance and leads all areas of the company’s financial planning, risk management, record-keeping, and reporting.

An accomplished executive, Mr. Blair has extensive public company controllership, operational and financial strategy experience. Prior to Phoena, Mr. Blair spent 18 years at Wajax, a Canadian distributor of equipment, power systems and industrial machinery, as a corporate controller, following 7 years as a financial analyst with companies including JD Edwards, Apple Inc. and Marion Merrell Dow.

Mr. Blair has a Bachelors in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and also holds a CPA, CA designation.

Ms. Page brings years of experience in both the capital markets, as well as the consumer retail markets.

Ms. Page spent 10 years working at Merrill Lynch Canada, followed by 10 years at TD Securities where she was Managing Director and Chief of Staff.

In 2007, Shawna launched a unique mass-channel brand of gender-specific and condition-specific products into the highly regulated nutraceutical industry across Canada, and later in various international markets, which she successfully exited in November 2016.

Mr. Dawber is a FCPA with significant public accounting experience having been an Audit Partner at Moore Stephens Hyde Houghton from 1971 until 1998 and BDO Canada LLP from 1999 to 2000.

He has extensive public company experience having served on public company boards for many years as an independent director, chair of audit committees and as a member of governance and compensation committees.

He has conducted numerous assignments for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario’s Professional Conduct Committee.

Senior Partner at Goldman, Spring, Kichler & Sanders LLP, an established boutique commercial law firm in Toronto.

Specializes in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and securities law to mid-market clients in Canada and the US.

Serves on the board of numerous companies and not-for-profit entities.

Former member of the Small Business Advisory Committee to the Ontario Securities Commission and TEC, an international organization of CEO’s.

Mr. Marcovitch is a seasoned chief executive with substantial business experience, managing companies with in excess of $1 billion dollars in revenue.

Until recently, he was the President and CEO of K2 Sports, an international developer, manufacturer, marketer and distributor of winter sports equipment (and was previously with K2 from 1999 to 2011). His responsibilities included managing factories in Europe, the USA and Asia.

He was previously the Chief Executive Officer at The Coleman Outdoor Company from 2011 until 2015, and prior to that, was Chief Executive Officer and President of Ride, Inc. from 1994 to 1999, which prior to its acquisition by K2 was a large publicly traded company.

Anna Jakobsmeier is the Senior Director of Production, leading Phoena’s Vaughan Manufacturing Facility.

She began her tenure with Phoena in 2016, overseeing the extraction department and was responsible for launching our award-winning cannabis oils and capsules. In her time with the business, Anna has taken on increasingly more senior roles within the business and currently manages all production and manufacturing projects in our Vaughan facility. Anna has simultaneously led a number of special projects for the business, notably leading the redesign and renovation of Phoena’s GPP facility, while successfully maintaining operations.

Ms. Jakobsmeier brings significant international experience to the Phoena team having worked in numerous Countries in the beverage alcohol and agriculture industries, across operations and logistics roles.

When she isn’t travelling or exploring music and arts festivals, Anna enjoys spending time at home with her puppy Ralphie.

As an experienced farmer, David Hamby oversees the growing operation at Phoena’s greenhouse facility in Pelham, ON. Prior to joining the business, David was the President of Operations at the Cambridge Towel Companies where he was responsible for the oversight of manufacturing operations in Ontario, North Carolina and South Carolina.

He is also an inventor and holds the US and Canadian patent for an institutional towel format.

David obtained the rank of Sergeant First Class in the US Armed Forces and a Vietnam veteran, having spent five years in active duty and eight years in the Reserve.

Charl van Rensburg is the Vice President of Sales and Business Development. In his role, he will be responsible for managing all recreational, medical, and international sales, as well as driving existing and new product growth. He is a passionate and collaborative senior sales leader with 20+ years of international sales and business development experience in various sectors and regulated industries – including Consumer Packaged Goods and Beverage Alcohol.

Prior to joining Phoena, Charl gained vast experience working his way up in multinational organizations (including British American Tobacco, MolsonCoors Canada and Brown – Foreman) where he contributed strategically, operational and tactically to help drive and achieve corporate objectives. Brands he has managed include Jack Daniel’s, Heineken, Miller, Corona, Coors Light, Molson Canadian as well as du Maurier, Dunhill, Marlboro, Lucky Strike and Vogue.

Charl’s educational background lies in Business Administration and Marketing Management.

Jeffrey Zietlow is the Chief Commercial Officer at Phoena where he leads the company’s marketing, sales, and innovation strategy. He began his tenure with Phoena as the Vice President of Marketing during which the company was recognized at the 2018 Licensed Producer of the Year.

Jeffery’s has vast experience as a senior marketing executive with broad operational expertise in corporate strategy, business development, supply chain and operations. Prior to joining Phoena, Jeffery provided executive leadership at Mill Street Brewery as the Vice President of Marketing. Prior to that, Jeffery was the Director of Marketing at Mother Parkers Tea and Coffee where he developed the vision, led the creation and launch of the new single serve beverage business, RealCup™, compatible with Keurig brewing systems, which grew exponentially over the first 24 months. It was during this time he developed a talent for building cross-functional teams and lead new product innovations.

His career began at Kraft Foods Canada where he excelled through a variety of positions in manufacturing, supply chain, strategy and growth before taking the reigns as director of marketing where he led strategy and business leadership of Premium and Super Premium Coffee Categories, including Nabob, Starbucks and Tassimo.

Jeffery earned his undergraduate degree in engineering from McGill University and later went on to earn his MBA from the Rotman school of Management at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Ilana Platt is the Chief Regulatory Officer at Phoena.

She began her tenure with Phoena in 2013, overseeing all aspects of Regulatory Affairs, Quality Assurance, Analytical Sciences, and R&D.  Dr. Platt was instrumental in obtaining numerous key licenses for the company including the original licenses to grow, manufacture, and sell dried cannabis; to manufacture and sell cannabis oil; and the rarely issued Controlled Drugs and Substances licence, which permitted the company to conduct research on cannabis at a time when research activities were not permitted under the governing cannabis regulations.

Dr. Platt’s illustrious career includes more than 12 years as a regulatory science, regulatory affairs and quality assurance professional.  Her 18 years of research experience is vast, and covers clinical, animal, cell research and R&D.

Dr. Platt earned her BSc. At McMaster University in biochemistry and her PhD at the University of Toronto in medical sciences.  Following her PhD studies, Dr. Platt completed a Fellowship at Harvard Schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine.  Dr. Platt is the recipient of 13 national and international awards, including a post-graduate scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Greg Guyatt is the Chief Executive Officer of Phoena. He joined the business in February 2019 as Chief Financial Officer. Previously, he served as the CFO of GreenSpace Brands. Inc., a Canadian-based premium natural food product company, and brings more than 20 years of experience leading high-performing finance teams from the CPG, pharmaceutical and private equity sectors.

From 2009 through 2016, he held increasingly senior finance roles at Sears Canada, and prior to that spent seven years in the pharmaceutical industry. In these roles, he had responsibility for a broad portfolio of financial operations including governance, audit and risk management, financial reporting, treasury and strategic planning, and has a wealth of M&A and capital markets expertise.

He began his career at Deloitte, followed by several years as an investment banker with UBS in the United Kingdom. Mr. Guyatt holds a B.Comm from Mount Allison University, and a CPA, CA designation.