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The chief operating officer and general counsel of MedMen Enterprises have both resigned amid a broader employee shakeup at the American marijuana retailer.
Chief Operating Officer Ben Cook and General Counsel Lisa Sergi Trager — who also served on the company’s board — have quit, a source familiar with the matter tells CNBC. Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications Daniel Yi has also resigned.
Some members of the company’s design and technology teams were also let go as the company tries to makes itself more efficient under CEO Adam Bierman.
Cook, Trager and Yi did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment. MedMen declined to comment for this article.
Cook, a global supply chain executive with 15 years of experience in retail and consumer brands management, was hired at MedMen in October following tenures at Sam’s Club, Target and Apple. Trager, an alum of both UCLA Law and global consulting firm Deloitte, helped MedMen navigate its various business transactions.
Yi joined MedMen in 2016 following roles at Southern California Edison and the Port of Long Beach.
The latest employment shuffle comes amid concerns of overspending and an unhealthy work environment at the Culver City, California-based company. Those worries were recently voiced by the company’s former chief financial officer, James Parker, who on Jan. 29 filed a lawsuit against MedMen for wrongful dismissal.
In the suit, the ex-CFO detailed what he viewed as a work environment “replete with racial, homophobic and misogynistic epithets and slurs, drug and alcohol abuse, personal humiliation occasioned by the words and deeds of the CEO and President of the company [and] profligate spending by both the CEO and President.”
MedMen, in the middle of litigation, denies those allegations and says the suit is unfounded. Michael Kramer replaced Parker as CFO.
As one of the preeminent multistate cannabis companies in the United States, MedMen has recently drawn the eyes of customers and Wall Street alike.
The company owns and operates 19 facilities ranging from cultivation to retail in Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada and New York, according to its website. It employs more than 1,000 people, has plans to expand into other U.S. states and Canada, and recently posted sales of $29.9 million in the second quarter.
The public company trades on the Canadian Stock Exchange under the ticker MMEN. Many stock exchanges refuse to list companies with U.S.-based marijuana operations because of the federal outlaw.
