Interview with Calum Hughes, CEO of Allied Corp
On May 1, 2019, Calum Hughes, CEO of Advanced Micro Biosciences (Allied Corp), will be speaking at Kahner Global's 4th Annual Cannabis Private Investment Summit West in Beverly Hills, CA. The event will host more than 150 industry leaders and investors for a day of collaboration and networking.
1. Tell me a little bit about your background, and how Advanced Micro Biosciences came to be.
With a humble approach, I founded Advanced Micro Biosciences, which is currently under binding LOI for acquisition by Allied Corp: OTC Exchange. Allied Corp.’s global strategy involves bringing forth medical cannabis technologies to support veterans and first responders suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This involves proprietary strains and full scope in person therapy augmented with a novel online community.
In the past, I enjoyed getting my medical grounding from spending 10 years in the hospital setting managing quality assurance teams in seven hospitals and as a director of a full scope 140 bed hospital in Canada. Through working towards my Doctorate degree and teaching at the University of British Columbia, I created some software that enabled legal cannabis producers in Canada to manage quality assurance audits. In doing this, I had the privilege to be a part of over 48 Health Canada applications and licensing processes. I got to know what was working and what was not for high quality premium Cannabis production. This is when Advanced Micro was founded.
Allied Corp has end stage licenses for Micro Cultivation and Standard Production in Canada. In addition to this, we have been able to negotiate acquisitions of low cost, high quality cannabis producers in Colombia. Allied Corp will be publicly listed on the OTCQB exchange and has a vision to meet the regulation listing requirements to advance quickly to NASDAQ.
Some of my clinical experience includes functioning as a health care provider for patients with co-morbid chronic diseases, acute disability and workplace health & wellness. Working as a clinician, I created Physical & Functional Diagnostic Tools and Chronic Disease Management Protocols for Cardiovascular, Orthopedic, Obesity, Respiratory, Brain Injury, and Cerebrovascular disease. I have created teaching resources and presented at top-level educational presentations regarding Change Management, Quality Improvement, Personality & Communication, Project Management and Lean Manufacturing Method for Healthcare.
2. On your site, you mention working with a network of micro-producers across Canada. Was this something that was needed, and welcomed, in the market, or was it initially a ‘hard sell?’
We have had too many requests from people wanting to adopt our micro cultivation approach. We have a dedicated approach to show the execution, then scale.
3. What is a ‘micro-production facility’?
A micro cultivation facility is a 4000 square foot micro cultivation facility that produces premium craft grown cannabis that is specifically grown for veterans and first responders. We also have a large scale production that is grown in Colombia and Uruguay and then finished processing in Canada.
4. What is ‘craft cannabis?’
Craft cannabis is cannabis that is grown in a more of a controlled environment. Within this environment we can custom breed certain strains to have the unique cannabinoid and terpene profile that is best suited for PTSD in first responders and veterans.
5. What makes you different from your competitors?
We have a unique approach and major access to veterans and first responders. In addition to this, our 20 years of craft cannabis growth and development of novel strains.
6. What successes have you seen with your process as compared to other processes you may have used before, or are used by other cannabis companies?