The hemp industry is experiencing a renaissance. Entrepreneurs, innovators and advocates are harnessing hemp’s versatility for a sustainable future.
Meet the Top 40 People in the Hemp Industry— from top hemp investors, hemp CEOs and hemp leaders, this article spotlights the visionaries at the forefront of the sustainability revolution.
This list has to begin with the man known as the “Emperor of Hemp”.
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- Jack Herer
His book The Emperor Wears No Clothes has been continuously in print for 40 years. This book is often cited to advocate for expanding the industrial use of hemp.
Herer brought the world’s attention to the versatility of hemp and how low maintenance the crop is. He has emphasised that hemp can boost the economy and has spoken about its medicinal properties.
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- Steve DeAngelo
He edited Jack Herer’s The Emperor Wears No Clothes.
DeAngelo became an organiser of the first Hemp Museum and Hemp Tour.
He set up Evolution. The first business to manufacture hemp clothing and accessories for retail sales in all 50 states of the U.S. and 21 countries during the 1900s,
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- Chris Conrad
Conrad’s books, including Hemp: Lifeline to the Future (1993) and Hemp for Health (1997) are seminal on the subject. He also revised Jack Herer’s The Emperor Wears No Clothes in 1990.
Conrad co-founded the American Hemp Council with Mikki Norris in 1989. They educated the public about industrial hemp
He served as the first president of the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) and founded the Business Alliance in Commerce and Hemp (BACH).
Let’s get to know some visionary hemp industry leaders:
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- Bruce Perlowin
Pwelowin is a true visionary. He is the CEO and Chairperson of Hemp, Inc. The company is a leader in the hemp industry.
The company has been building five hemp infrastructures in the US, including:
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- industrial hemp
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- extraction
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- farming
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- educational
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- and, marketing
Hemp, Inc. offers green solutions that can replace petroleum-based products.
Perlowin has made a smart strategic partnership with Veteran Village Kins Community Arizona. Together, they aim to grow hemp and produce products that can generate revenue and help veterans.
He also partnered with JNV Farms LLC to obtain majority ownership in an Oregon hemp company and hemp processing center.
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- Joseph Trivigno
He is the director of 2 Manifest Studio, LLC.
Trivigno and his team have been monitoring and documenting Hemp, Inc.’s progress.
2 Manifest Studio, LLC, in partnership with Hemp, Inc., is creating a feature-length film and subsequent docuseries about the history of hemp.
The team aims tocapture developments at the Veteran Village Kins Community in Arizona and share this journey with the world.
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- Rohit Sharma
As Interim Director of the Federation of International Hemp Organizations (FIHO), Sharma has helped scale sustainable hemp production.
FIHO promotes research, development, innovation, standards harmonization, regulation, and awareness creation related to hemp.
Sharma is the founder and chairman of the board of the Indian Industrial Hemp Association (IIHA).
Sharma oversees the cultivation, extraction and processing of hemp products. He secured the first hemp cultivation license in Uttarakhand and drafted the policy framework for hemp in India.
He has shared his insights and knowledge about hemp in countries such as Germany, Canada, the US, China, Japan, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands and Italy.
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- Riley Cote
Cote has been an invaluable advocate for hemp.
He founded the Hemp Heals Foundation. The foundation educates the public about hemp’s nutritional benefits and eco-friendly industrial uses.
Cote is also a board member of the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council.
He co-founded Bodychek Wellness. The company produces hemp-based alternatives to traditional pain medications.
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- Siddharth Gupta
Gupta is the founder and CEO of Indian Hempstore. The company manufactures hemp-based sustainable and eco-friendly products.
He aims to build an agile marketplace for all hemp companies in India and abroad, facilitating easy trade and connecting industry to industry.
He educates people on building a sustainable lifestyle by choosing hemp-based products. He is associated with the Uttarakhand Government to regulate industrial hemp cultivation.
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- Natascha Neptune
She is the Founder & CEO of Citadelle Green Mountain.
She plans to grow industrial hemp as part of a climate-smart initiative to sequester carbon and offer material as biomass and other products.
She is also part of the Illinois Farm Bureau, the Illinois Hemp Growers Association, and the National Women in Ag Association Chicago Chapter (NWIAA-Chicago).
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- Morris Beegle
Beegle is the co-founder and president of the WAFBA (We Are For Better Alternatives)
WAFBA’s family of brands include:
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- NoCo Hemp Expo
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- Silver Mountain Hemp Guitars
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- Tree Free Hemp
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- and, the Hawaii Hemp Conference
Beegle presents at more than a dozen conferences every year and audiences in North America, Europe, the UK, and Nepal. He advocates for eco-friendly, hemp-based products.
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- Vanessa Wallace
She is the Executive Chairman of Ecofibre Limited, an Australian biotechnology company.
Ecofibre has contributed to a lot of research on the benefits of hemp and sells high-quality hemp-based products like oil, nutraceuticals, food, and textiles in the United States and Australia.
Ecofibre partnered with Ananda Hemp to shift cultivation to the US given the strict regulations in Australia.
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- Lorenza Romanese
She is the Managing Director at the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA).
She has played a major role in advocating for industrial uses of hemp.
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- Jayanti Bhattacharaya
and - Shalini Bhattacharya
- Jayanti Bhattacharaya
- These sisters co-founded India Hemp and Co.
It is a leading hemp company with offices in Bangalore and Barcelona. They make nutritional, sustainable, hemp-based food products.
They became the first hemp company worldwide to be featured on Shark Tank.
India Hemp and Co. works towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and is seeking investment to harness the medical uses of hemp.
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- Vishal Vivek
Vivek is the CEO of Ukhi, organisation focused on sustainable packaging solutions. The organisation has used hemp as a vehicle for positive change in rural and remote areas of Uttrakhand.
The Ukhi connects the local hemp economy to the global market and empowers women by presenting them with work opportunities.
The Ukhi set up a state-of-the-art store in Delhi to showcase a wide variety of hemp-based products. Vivek also spreads awareness about the industrial uses of hemp and busts myths about the plant.
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- Loveena Sirohi
She is the co-founder of India Hemp Organics. She is presently the director of the company. Sirohi helped launch a range of hemp-based health and wellness products.
India Hemp Organics now manufactures 26 products. 10 of these are hemp-based nutrition products
Loveena Sirohi has helped expand India Hemp Organics into international markets.
The products that she creates are based on years of fieldwork and research. She learned about the benefits of hemp from farmers in the Himalayas.
She discovered that more than 25,000 sustainable products can be made with the plant.
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- Rohit Kamath
Kamath co-founded Hemp Organics and now works as an investor and advisor at the company.
Kamath served as the Director of this pioneering hemp-based wellness brand for four years. Hemp Organics harnesses the nutritional and medicinal benefits of the plant.
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- Chirag Tekchandaney
- Yash P. Kotak
- Sumit Shah
- Delzaad Deolaliwala
and - Jahan Peston Jamas
- This team founded and runs BOHECO (Bombay Hemp Company). The company produces hemp-based wellness products as well as spreads awareness about industrial uses of the hemp plant.
They have set up a virtual clinic online and a knowledge centre to educate people on uses of hemp.
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- Hewitt Poland
He is the president of United Natural Hemp Extracts.
The company sells hemp-based crude oil and offers eco-friendly alternatives for a sustainable future.
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- Abhinav Bhaskar
Bhaskar co-founded Ananta Hemp Works.
He has written about bringing back ancient plant benefits for modern illnesses.
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- Vikram Bir Singh
Singh xo-founded Ananta Hemp Works with Abbinav Bhaskar in August 2020. It is a pioneering indian hemp-based skin care brand.
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- Damian Olędzk
He is the founder and CEO of HempKing.eu. He is dedicated to spreading awareness about the health and nutritional benefits of hemp.
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- Deepika Sharma
She is the co-founder of Hempstrol, a socially conscious company which produces high-quality hemp-based oil and other wellness products.
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- Doug Fine
He authored Hemp Bound in 2014 and explained the role hemp can play in a sustainable agricultural revolution.
A lot can be learned from the people who grow hemp.
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- Mike Halsema
and - Leslie Halsema
- Mike Halsema
- The Halsemas grow hemp at Halsema Hemp Farms and produce wellness products, including chocolates and pet treats.
They practice organic farming. They remove insects by hand and choose washing with soap and water over insecticides and pesticides.
Their customers get a “seed to shelf” experience as Mike handles production and Leslie handles marketing.
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- Rachel Kidwell
and - Jason Kidwell
- Rachel Kidwell
- They operate Lewis Organics, a USDA-certified organic hemp farm in Indiana.
They focus on preserving the natural genetic variations of hemp. Kidwells are on a mission to find hemp varieties with natural resistance to pests and disease.
Let’s get to know top hemp researchers:
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- Senay Simsek
Simsek is the primary investigator of the Purdue Hemp Products Utilization Consortium (H-PUC). She works to advance the research and development of hemp-based products developed at Purdue University.
She collaborated with:
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- Marguerite Bolt
and - Laila Hossain
- Marguerite Bolt
- to develop patent-pending superabsorbent materials made from hemp.
Together, these researchers have identified the benefits of hemp hurd. Their team conducted tests and proved that hemp hurd has a significantly higher absorption capacity than hemp bast and many traditional polyacrylate-based materials.
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- Vijay Lakshmi Awasthi
- Neeti Mishra and
- Shruti Singhania
- These three women established Sharv Hemp Indus Ventures Private Limited in Uttarakhand, India’s first all-women-owned start-up in industrial hemp.
Let’s get to know some pioneering figures in the hemp industry:
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- George Washington
The first US president cultivated hemp at Mount Vernon throughout his lifetime for industrial uses.
He grew hemp for its fibers, which were great for making rope and sail canvas. He believed hemp to be essential due to its diverse uses.
In the 1760s, Washington even considered hemp as a cash crop.
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- Christopher Boucher
Boucher is widely recognised as one of the preeminent and pioneering figures in the modern American hemp movement.
He founded The Hempstead Company in 1990. It was one of the first hemp companies in the US.
In 1992, Boucher co-founded the HIA (Hemp Industries Association) as the first industry collective and trade association to grow and standardise the industry.
In 1994, he made hemp history as the first modern person to legally grow industrial hemp at the USDA Research Station in Brawley, California.
What makes this list important?
Hemp has a rich history, and the multiple uses of hemp have been acknowledged by various historical figures, including George Washington and Henry Ford.
The world is now not discovering but going back towards hemp. This has been made possible by visionaries who are educating people about industrial hemp and researching further to make the most of everything this plant can offer.
Hemp is at the forefront of the current sustainable revolution, and getting to know the trailblazers behind the scenes can help us understand their vision and make eco-friendly choices.