When a character calling himself the Wolf of Weed Street announced he was starting a medical cannabis venture, some of the biggest names in the Bay of Plenty business world became investors. Two years later, the company is in liquidation; more than $1m gone. Tony Wall investigates.
When Brendon Ogilvy saw the job advertised on Seek in March 2018, he was intrigued. A new Bay of Plenty-based medical marijuana company, Medicann, was looking for a chief executive.
The company aimed to take advantage of the forthcoming Medical Cannabis Bill to become “the market leader in medical cannabis in New Zealand”.
The pay was good – $150,000-$200,000 a year – although Ogilvy had been earning more than that as a market researcher with companies in the Middle East. Now back in Tauranga, he had taken time off to build a house and was looking for work.
He texted his wife: “Check out this job I found for myself”. She thought he was joking. “I’m serious,” he wrote. "Could be interesting, certainly a growth industry.”
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