Seattle, WA - APRIL 12, 2022 - MainStem, the leading B2B supply chain and integrated procurement platform for the cannabis industry — today announced the expansion of its board with the pivotal appointment of Microsoft’s Field Chief Data Officer for the West, Matthew Smith. Smith has enjoyed a distinguished and impressive nine year tenure at Microsoft where he has helped shape global enterprise business transformation initiatives across a variety of B2B& B2C industries from supply chain, high-tech, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, media & entertainment, telecommunications, and more.

“I am honored that MainStem has entrusted me with this role, and I believe it is a testament to our shared belief that businesses’ desire for speed, transparency, trust and real time intelligent decision support are always top drivers of enterprise maturity,” stated Matthew Smith.

Joining Thomas Harrison, Senior Operating Partner at Merida Capital Holdings and MainStem Chairman and CEO, Alen Nguyen, Smith will serve through 2024 to provide strategic guidance on data analytics innovation, giving MainStem’s vast ecosystem of cannabis companies and global suppliers an aggregated market read that provides real-time visibility into cannabis supply chain trends and personalized business opportunities.

“It takes time to switch from making gut-based, reactive decisions to making decisions based on business data, and yet data-driven companies always have a strategic advantage over their competition including increased agility and communication around mergers and acquisitions; with M+A activity presently leading the game in cannabis, I’m personally very excited to be joining the board of a company so well poised to powerfully revolutionize it,” added Smith.

Smith’s appointment comes at a watershed moment for both the history of MainStem and the industry at large.  Honored by INC. Magazine in its prestigious annual '5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America' list, MainStem has enjoyed a 433% sales growth in the last two years, with its B2Bsupply chain platform roughly processing over nineteen thousand purchase orders and one hundred thousand shipments since 2020.

“Every quarter, MainStem onboards an average of five new MSOs and all of their locations across the U.S., signifying the cannabis industry’s great need for and rapid adoption of SaaS integrated supply chain and procurement technology,” explained Alen Nguyen. “With Matthew Smith’s addition to our board, MainStem will be able to soon equip our clients with global supply chain intelligence, captured in real-time, across our global ecosystem. Forecasting can help improve planning processes, increase optionality, predict variations in demand and prevent costly supply chain bottlenecks.”

Added Smith: “When various business groups produce their own versions of reports, the enterprise isn’t talking the same language on the same set of numbers. That creates confusion, inaccuracy, and, more importantly, ill-informed and costly decisions that rapidly growing MSOs simply cannot afford. Instead, when everyone across a company’s footprint comes together around one version of truth - with MainStemas a visible industry sponsor “letting the data tell the story,” they have the same baseline for what’s happening. MainStem already makes this possible for MSOs.  My job will be to help create one version of truth, shape industry data consumption patterns and performance indicators for the global ecosystem at large.”

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About MainStem

The leading B2B marketplace and integrated supply purchasing platform for the cannabis industry, MAINSTEM was founded in Seattle, Washington, in 2014. Since its inception, MAINSTEM has evolved to redefine the cannabis supply chain. An integrated SaaS provider, MAINSTEM innovates through the alignment of its proprietary Purchase Pro™ product, the industry's first and only cannabis-specific procurement software. Dedicated to supporting cannabis companies' growth through robust technology and partnerships with growers, manufacturers, and dispensaries, MAINSTEM offers a one-stop 'Amazon solution' that works for businesses in all states where cannabis companies legally operate. MAINSTEM exists to eliminate supply chain challenges within the fast-growing cannabis industry.

Learn more at mainstem.io.