Dalwhinnie Farms Names New Chief Executive Officer

Dalwhinnie Enterprises, LLC, the Ridgway, Colorado based cannabis purveyor, names Brandon Barksdale as Chief Executive Officer. The Dalwhinnie family of companies includes the Dalwhinnie Farms vertically integrated luxury cannabis brand, Shift Cannabis, Ridgway Hemp Company, and the Dalwhinnie Farms destination boutique in Aspen.

With years of experience advising a variety of cannabis companies from small start-ups to the largest publicly traded multi-state operators, Barksdale joins Dalwhinnie from CohnReznick’s Advisory Practice, where he had a front row seat to the growth of the fledgling industry since its infancy.

For nearly a decade, Barksdale’s professional services experience has been primarily focused in the cannabis space. Providing strategic direction to preeminent organizations through the complexities of operational challenges, regulatory changes, financial management, implementation planning and growth strategies. He has helped companies throughout various business lifecycles driving risk mitigation, control and organizational maturity.

It’s from this advisory capacity that Barksdale began to work with Dalwhinnie, navigating the project planning that led to the opening of their unique boutique retail store in Aspen and helping to steer the company’s overall business strategy. He is well positioned to lead the next phase for Dalwhinnie with a focus on expansion, scalability and production excellence.

“I’ve seen many cannabis organizations, small to large,” said Barksdale. “Dalwhinnine has a culture and structure built for success, growth and further development. I look forward to concentrating on thoughtful retail strategies and market advancement opportunities for both the connoisseur line, Dalwhinnie, and the urban explorer/outdoors-focused brand, Shift.”

“We are also establishing processes that will lead us to GMP and GACP certification which will continue to differentiate us in the marketplace as a leading supplier driven by quality and industry best practices.”

“We are extremely elated to have Brandon leading our family of companies. He is a rare find in this industry, bringing vision, character, operational and strategic insight that will continue to elevate Dalwhinnie on our journey. With the perfect balance of focus on sustainability and growth, Brandon leverages his past cannabis and broader professional experiences to bring best practices to every facet of our organization,” noted the board of directors.

In his first 100 days as CEO, Barksdale has already created baseline improvement standard operation procedures and executed operational changes to improve everything from organizational efficiency to leading production standards.

“We have amazing talent here at Dalwhinnie. We have already dramatically improved culture, production and quality. We are no doubt amongst the leading cultivators in Colorado and abroad,” concluded Barksdale.