Nancy Whiteman

Today we are featuring “The Queen Of Legal Weed”, Nancy Whiteman. Nancy is The CEO and co-founder of cannabis edible company Wana, she started her company in Colorado and has since expanded to a national scale, as well as into the Canadian market. 

She was one of six women in High Times 100 in 2019. She has also won the MJBizDaily’s 2019 Industry Impact Award and the 3rd position in Cannabis Business Executive’s 2019 Power Women in Cannabis.

Nancy and her team have brought innovation into the legal cannabis industry. With their all-natural, gluten-free and vegan-friendly edibles, they have tested over 30 different types of fruit pectin to find the one that offered the best consistency, texture and flavor. Nancy and her team’s focus has been on being an industry leader in product quality and consistency. They continue looking for opportunities to refine and perfect their products every day, they have also eliminated high-fructose corn syrup, replacing it with a proprietary organic sugar and tapioca syrup blend that meets their high standards for product consistency and flavor. Today, Wana is the leading edible brand in the U. S. It has more than a dozen product offerings and is present in more than 10 states. 

Nancy Whiteman is a longtime cannabis businesswoman, but before that she was the vice president of marketing for a financial services company. She has an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and about two decades ago, she moved to Colorado, where she ran her own marketing consultancy company. Around this time, a neighbor launched an infused soda business, complete with a commercial kitchen and license to work with legal cannabis. This got Nancy interested in the legal cannabis market, which led her and her then partner [John Whiteman] to begin researching and learning about cannabis edibles. 

From the start, Nancy believed that women-led management and product development teams have an advantage in creating products that are authentic and resonate well with women. She has stated that so much of this industry is about building relationships and trust, and that process can be bolstered when women consumers see other women standing behind the products on the shelves. In addition to reaching female consumers effectively, she thinks women bring a collaborative and cooperative spirit to an industry that is too often driven by ego and competition. Here at RVR we wholeheartedly agree.

Nancy is proud to say that Wana is a “Partner for Freedom” with the Last Prisoner Project and that she has been inspired by Mary Bailey and Sarah Gersten at the Last Prisoner Project. After entering the cannabis industry, she has met many wonderful and talented women who inspire her every day, this too has been our experience.