CEO, Tantalus Labs
40 Under 40, Marijuana Venture
Dan Sutton is the Founder and CEO of Tantalus Labs, British Columbia’s largest licensed producer of regulated cannabis. Tantalus Labs believes in sun-grown cannabis, and are wholly owned and operated in British Columbia.
Dan’s 2015 TedXVancouver presentation furthered awareness around the environmental advantages of sun-grown cannabis. He was placed on the “40 Under 40 list” by Marijuana Ventures Magazine in 2016. Dan was also nominated for the Innovator of the Year Award at the Canadian Cannabis Awards in 2017.
His career in business development and finance spans innovative industries from nuclear fuel to high field magnetics. In 2012 he founded Tantalus Labs, a company focused on applying advanced agricultural techniques to cannabis production. He and his team of biologists, agricultural scientists, and engineers designed and built North America’s first cannabis-tailored closed-system greenhouse.
The Tantalus Labs prototype facility, SunLab, enables federally licensed sun-grown cannabis cultivation while maintaining the environmental control of a laboratory. SunLab reduces the energy demand for cannabis production by up to 90%, substantially lowering both production costs and environmental footprint.
Dan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Victoria.
In unrelated news, Dan spoke in front of over 5,000 people at TEDxVancouver.
TOPICS
The Rise of Regulated Cannabis, the Sector that will Employ Generation Z
Dan provides a lay of the land into the “state of play” of the Marijuana industry in Canada – where the legalization process is it, where it’s headed, and how different provinces’ are approaching the industry. From there, he goes deeper into expanding some of the bigger trends around cannabis, debunking certain myths and explaining how it will become part of the legal fabric of Canada within a decade.
Democracy, Diplomacy and Debate – How To Manage An Organization of Millenials
As both a millennial himself and the President of a company that employs 90% millennials, Dan has learned that different tactics are required to keep millennials content both from a work-life balance, culture and operational perspective. Examples of this include radical candour, flatter hierarchies, unique vacation policies and the idea of building trust with criticism. Through anecdote and case study, Dan will help you do a better job of recruiting and retaining millennials.
Social Commerce
As President of Tantalus Labs, Dan fosters a value system of social commerce, in the pursuit of enterprise growth that aligns profitability with environmental sustainability. He believes that every successful organization going forward will have to share these values; consumers expect it, and it’s the right thing to do.
