Klems, who has been with the global cannabis e-commerce platform company since July, succeeds Annie Holmes who is stepping down
() (), which operates the largest global cannabis e-commerce platform, said on Monday that it tapped Slava Klems as the compnay's interim chief financial officer.
Klems succeeds Annie Holmes, who has stepped down to pursue other opportunities, and will close out her CFO stint with Namaste on October 30.
"I would like to welcome Ms Klems to the position of interim CFO for Namaste," CEO Meni Morim said in a statement.
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"She has an impressive background in corporate finance with experience in technology and platform integration and has shown an incredible business acumen since joining the company.”
The Namaste boss also thanked Holmes for her work at Namaste and especially her help with the “seamless transition.”
Klems has held senior finance management positions at AIMIA Inc (Aeroplan) and Dominion Citrus Income Fund. She has experience across diverse industries including retail, distribution, manufacturing, pharma and automotives.
According to Namaste, she joined the company in July and has "proven" herself as “a driven and hardworking professional” with expertise in change management, process optimization and improved operational efficiencies.
Klems holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from York University. She earned her chartered accountant designation with KPMG.
Trademark dispute settlement
Separately, Namaste revealed that it has reached a settlement in connection with a trademark dispute involving the use of trademarks for "Namaste", "NamasteVapes", "Namaste Technologies", "NamasteMD" and "NamasteCafe."
Under the terms of the settlement, Namaste will receive a settlement payment in three tranches over the next 12 months from one of the defendants for around $250,000.
In addition, Namaste has agreed to assign the trademarks to the same defendant, in exchange for "a limited licence" for the continued use by Namaste of the trademarks over the next 12 months in Canada, and the transfer of the domain namastevapes.ca following payment of the final tranche of the settlement fee.
The litigation initiated by Namaste in connection with the trademark dispute is expected to be dismissed with the consent of all parties over the next few days.
"We are pleased to put this matter behind us and continue writing our own history with a clean slate. Our focus continues to be on the development of our own in-house brands in the various lines of business we operate in such as CannMart and VendorLink,” said Morim.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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