Next, We Take New Brunswick with Chris Jones, Founder and President of CANNABIS XPRESS

Serial entrepreneur Chris Jones, Founder and President of CANNABIS XPRESS, a leading chain of cannabis retail stores started in Ontario, is back on the podcast to tell us his adventure of expanding his successful store concept to small-town New Brunswick, one of the most innovative markets in Canada.

About Chris

Chris Jones is an entrepreneur and cannabis industry executive. He is currently Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CANNABIS XPRESS, which is a leading chain of 17 profitable cannabis retail stores across Canada; with 14 in Ontario, and 3 in New Brunswick. He was the first to open a private retail store in New Brunswick, and is also the largest private retailer in the province by revenue and number of stores.

Previous to that, he founded another cannabis retail company in Ontario and sold after it hit a run rate of approximately $15 million via an all-cash sale to a public company. Before entering the retail industry, he was actively involved in and led multiple acquisitions and investments ranging from several million to over a billion dollars during his time at a publicly traded company called Origin House (OH) which was later acquired by a top US-based multi state operator - Cresco Labs (CL).

Chris has also developed and taught classes at George Brown College through their school of continuing education. One of them more recently was called Cannabis Business Strategy, which includes a lineup of coveted guest speakers such as Bruce Linton (Founder of Canopy Growth Corporation – which was previously the largest cannabis company in the world by market capitalization). He also teaches other courses in management and business.

Before that, he built his finance and business development experience at two global construction companies based in Canada: EllisDon and Aecon. Additionally, he led business development and negotiations for a boutique trial-focused law firm in Toronto.

He obtained his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, and a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) from Ted Rogers School of Management.

Outside of work, Chris spends his time travelling, learning Spanish, walking his dog, enjoying the outdoors, exercising and is undefeated in Muay Thai.

You can reach Chris at christopher.lloyd.jones1@gmail.com

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.