CHICAGO – Wana Brands CEO Nancy Whiteman won the Benzinga Lifetime Achievement Award tonight during the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Chicago, recognizing her long list of accomplishments in the cannabis industry as a leader of one of North America’s top cannabis-infused brands.

The Benzinga Cannabis Awards celebrate new, creative, innovative, and outstanding people, solutions, and companies in the cannabis industry. Named in honor of the cannabis trailblazer, the Brett Roper Award for Lifetime Achievement recognizes “the person who, over the course of their career, has done the most to forward the enablement of the cannabis industry.”

As Wana Brands CEO, Nancy Whiteman has been instrumental in securing the company’s position as a top international brand now available in more than 3,000 dispensaries across the United States and Canada. Whiteman directs the development of partnerships and licensing agreements domestically and internationally. She leads the company’s strategic vision and has been instrumental in Wana Brands’ growth into new and emerging markets. Most recently, Whiteman established the Wana Brands Foundation, an organization working to enhance the world by supporting a wide variety of nonprofits in Wana’s communities.

“I’m humbled to receive this recognition. I never imagined when we established Wana Brands over a decade ago that I would one day be acknowledged by my peers with a lifetime achievement award. I’m honored to be rewarded for the job I love doing so much, and I share this award with my team who have worked with me to make Wana Brands the success it is today,” Whiteman said.

The Benzinga award comes on the heels of a litany of accolades Wana Brands has received in 2022, including earning the rank of no. 3,205 on the annual Inc. 5000 list of the nation’s fastest-growing companies. The 2022 ranking marks the fifth year in a row Wana Brands was named on the Inc. 5000 list. In addition, Whiteman was named to the Denver Business Journal’s 2022 Outstanding Women in Business list, and was an honoree in the Boulder, Colorado Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Women Who Light The Community event. Rounding out the list of the company’s recent awards, Vice President of Innovation Mike Hennesy was recently named a Denver Business Journal C-Suite Award winner for 2022.

The Wana Brands Foundation was created with a $50 million endowment and supports community organizations focused on enhancing lives, improving medical outcomes, increasing diversity and inclusion within the cannabis industry, and advancing cannabis research and education. This year, the Foundation funded initiatives to further voter education and registration through a partnership with the League of Women Voters, provide healthy food to people in need across 13 states, and support community healing by donating funds to the Animal Assisted Therapy Programs of Colorado for a memorial gazebo dedicated to a victim of the King Soopers shooting.

Wana Brands leads the industry in innovation with an expanded product portfolio featuring a range of different CBD/THC ratios as well as a variety of different dosages, onset times, and duration of effects. Recent innovations include Wana Quick Fast-Acting Gummies, which provide Delta-9 -THC effects similar to inhalation with an onset time of just 5-15 minutes, and Wana Optimals, a suite of daily wellness products powered by rare and major cannabinoids, terpenes, and other plant-based ingredients to help people achieve important health goals such as sound sleep and appetite suppression. All Wana products are manufactured in line with cGMP and HACCP practices and are tested for potency.

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact Shawna Seldon McGregor at shawna@themaverickpr.com or 917-971-7852.

Wana Brands: Enhance Your Life

With North America’s largest distribution footprint, cannabis edibles producer Wana Brands is a top international brand available in 14 U.S. states, the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, and nine Canadian provinces and territories, generating close to $300 million in retail sales annually across more than 3,000 dispensaries. Through industry-leading innovation, Wana is developing cutting-edge use-case formulations and recipes, such as Wana Quick Fast-Acting Gummies, the top-selling quick-onset edible, and the Optimals Fast Asleep formulation. Wana is committed to the communities it serves by supporting more than 50 charitable organizations in the markets where the company operates. For more information or to subscribe to Wana’s e-newsletter, visit www.wanabrands.com.