What many of you don’t know is the extraordinary story of how merging with MPX became an attractive opportunity for iAnthus and that one of the most prized assets that came with the US holdings in the deal was investment bank executive, MPX’s former COO and second largest shareholder, New Jersey native, and new iAnthus board director, Beth Stavola. When asked for comment about Stavola, Hadley Ford CEO of iAnthus said, “Beth Stavola is one of the pioneers in the industry. What she has been able to do in building MPX while raising six kids is the stuff of legends. We acquired MPX for two reasons: one was the strategic fit for iAnthus, the other was for Beth. I call her the C$835 million-dollar woman.”
Beth Stavola, the married mother of six children, retired from her well-earned Senior VP position at investment bank Jefferies and Company in 2009 at the ripe young age of 39 and began her Cannabis Industry journey 3 years later in 2012 that has since seen her essentially close her second exit (and re-entry) in 6 short years. Stavola who was raised in a strict Irish catholic household in Ocean, NJ, is the oldest of 7 children (4 boys and 3 girls) with her youngest sister, Julie Winter, joining her in the industry in 2014. More on that later.
Beginning at Jefferies in her mid-twenties, Stavola mastered the craft of selling deals brokered by the firm in the testosterone loaded world of Wall Street. Fiercely independent, street smart, outgoing, effusive and sincere, she became the ultimate networker and dealmaker before changing paths in 2009. And make no mistake, she is as tough as any of her peers on Manhattan’s south side.