Tej Virk

Tej Virk is the CEO and Director of Akanda, an international medical cannabis company, cultivating ethically sourced cannabis in Lesotho. He started his career in investment banking, spending 15 years with BMO Capital Markets, with his final year focusing heavily on the cannabis industry. He transacted on over 100 IPOs and follow-on capital raises, including companies such as Canopy Growth Corp. and Tilray before joining Canopy Growth Corp. in 2019, as Managing Director of Europe where he drove the multinational expansion of Canopy’s European operations. Virk then joined Khiron Life Sciences as President of Europe where he established the company’s European medical and consumer packaged goods business from scratch.

Virk has earned a reputation for industry-leading innovation and successful execution in the global cannabis space including overseeing multiple European pharmaceutical and consumer product launches, bleeding-edge regulatory work, accreditation of medical education platforms for health care providers, e-commerce rollouts, multiple sector M&As, establishing telemedicine partnerships, and setting up supply chains and distribution channels in every continent.

Virk was a founding member and executive group stakeholder for Project Twenty21, the UK’s largest medical cannabis study. The study published the first real-world data collected on medical cannabis in the UK, with findings indicating that legally prescribed cannabis provides clinically significant improvements in the quality of life of patients living with numerous medical conditions.