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Andrés Fajardo

COLOMBIA - Health & Education

Andrés Fajardo

President & Co-founder, Clever Leaves

Bio

Andrés Fajardo is President at Clever Leaves. He has led the development of its first 18ha of GACP and EU-GMP certified cultivation and post-harvest facilities, the design and construction of a GMP certified extraction and formulation plant, and the development of a robust pipeline of clients and brands. Prior to Clever Leaves, he was a founding partner of Mojo Ventures and, before that, president/CEO at IQ Outsourcing. Earlier, he was a principal member at Booz & Company. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in industrial engineering and BS in economics from Los Andes University in Colombia.

TBY talks to Andrés Fajardo, President & Co-founder of Clever Leaves.

How does the company assume its role as leader of the medical cannabis space in Colombia?

Clever Leaves’ major investments in Colombia started in January 2018. Today, we are one the largest, if not the largest, medical cannabis companies in Colombia in terms of capacity. Testament of the company’s forward-looking spirit is its commitment to excellence in production quality standards. Clever Leaves obtained EUGMP pharmaceutical grade certification, making us the only company in Colombia or Latin America to have done so, and among only a handful of companies in the world to be able to produce medical-grade cannabis with those standards. Our approach to partnerships with companies all over the world, in different areas including pharmaceutical, R&D, and cannabis companies is aligned with our goal of reaching more and more patients. We continue to increase our production capacity in Colombia and have taken the lead in many of the most recent discussions to ensure that regulators, both in Colombia and abroad, enable the export of cannabis internationally. At Clever Leaves, we understand that the potential of cannabis can only be tapped into if it is produced at pharmaceutical grade. This will require significant product development and clinical data gathering. The goal is for the medical cannabis space to serve patients around the world.

What are the social and economic contributions of Clever Leaves with Colombia?

Clever Leaves was founded on three main principles: extending the benefits of cannabis therapy to patients around the world; creating wellbeing for all of the communities and people we work with, starting with our employees and the communities we operate in; and obtaining results through people and not despite people. In the economic reactivation, we can continue to generate work, employment, and investment in the communities where we operate. Being a 300-people company, rural employment, particularly within the dry flower branch, is aligned with our growth plans. There is also a focus on contributing to the long-term fabric of Colombian society. We work with different education institutions to provide training on topics we are experts in and which can benefit communities, for example pest control. Contributing to the scientific make up of Colombia is our promise to the country.

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