CWB

Board of Directors

John Held, Independent Director and Chairman of our Board of Directors

Mr. Held first joined the Company’s Board on May 18, 2018 and has served as Board Chair since September 2020. Mr. Held is Chair of the Corporate Governance & Nominating Committee, and Chair of the Compensation Committee of the Board. Mr. Held has served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Omega Protein Company, a nutritional specialty oils and proteins products company, since 2006, and has served as General Counsel since 2000. In 2014, Mr. Held founded the Byzantium Group, a private security and investigations company, where he served as Board Chair. Prior to working with Omega Protein Company, Mr. Held was General Counsel at American Residential Services, Inc., and also practiced corporate and securities law with a large international law firm. Mr. Held has previously served on the Board of Directors of Ajna BioSciences, a botanical drug development company. Mr. Held holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and International Relations from Bucknell University and a Juris Doctorate from Cornell Law School.

William (Bill) Morachnick, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Mr. Morachnick joined Charlotte's Web as CEO in September 2023. He is a global business executive with a track record of building premium, differentiated products and brands across multiple channels across a broad range of product categories. From 2006 to 2016 he was President at Santa Fe Reynolds Tobacco International (SFRTI) GmbH in Zurich, Switzerland, an international business division of Reynolds American, Inc. He led SFRTI from a start-up to a highly profitable organization, managing several hundred employees and a network of importers/distributors operating in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. SFRTI was acquired by Japan Tobacco Group in 2016 for $5 billion. He has served as an executive advisor or board member for several companies seeking to launch and/or expand their businesses in the U.S. and overseas markets. Mr. Morachnick has a Masters of Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and is an Adjunct Professor of Global Business Strategy at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.‎

Susan Vogt, Independent Director

Ms. Vogt has been a director of the Company since September 3, 2020. Ms. Vogt is a member of the Audit Committee, the Compensation Committee, and the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Since September 2019, Ms. Vogt has served on the Board of Directors of Sharps Compliance Corp, a publicly-held Nasdaq-listed medical waste management company, where she serves on the Governance Committee and as Chair of the Audit Committee. In October 2018, Ms. Vogt joined the Board of Anika Therapeutics Inc., a Nasdaq-listed company, where she currently serves as Chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee and as a designated audit committee financial expert member of its Audit Committee. Ms. Vogt previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Aushon Biosystems, Inc., a developer of a multiplex immunoassay platform from 2013 until the company was acquired by Quanterix Corporation in January 2018. Ms. Vogt received her M.B.A. from Boston University with a concentration in Finance and her bachelor’s degree from Brown University in Art History.

Thomas Lardieri, Independent Director

Mr. Lardieri is a global finance executive with extensive experience interacting with boards and audit committees. Since September of 2020, Mr. Lardieri has served on the Advisory Board and as the Chief Operating Officer of Blue Onyx Companies, a real estate development company. Mr. Lardieri served as Senior Vice President of Finance at ViacomCBS Inc. from December 2019 to February 2020, where he worked with the Chief Transformation Officer to integrate the Viacom and CBS finance organizations following the merger of the companies. Mr. Lardieri served as Viacom’s Senior Vice President, Global Financial Operations from 2014 until 2019. Mr. Lardieri joined Viacom Inc. as VP & Controller of MTV Networks and had, among other responsibilities, a leadership role in the successful implementation of its Global Enterprise Reporting Systems. Before joining Viacom in 2011, Mr. Lardieri served as SVP & Controller at PepsiCo. Inc.’s Pepsi-Cola Beverages division from 2010 to 2011. Prior to the Beverages division, from 2007 to 2010, Mr. Lardieri served as Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer of the Pepsi Bottling Group, a publicly-traded company and the world's largest bottler of Pepsi-Cola beverages. Prior to that role, Mr. Lardieri was Vice President, Chief Risk Officer, and Chief Audit Executive at PepsiCo Inc. from 2001 to 2007. Mr. Lardieri began his career at PepsiCo Inc. in the position of Senior Accountant in 1988. Before joining PepsiCo Inc., Mr. Lardieri held positions at Arthur Young and Grant Thornton. Mr. Lardieri holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (CPA program) degree from Pace University New York.

Angela McElwee, Independent Director

Angela McElwee is a seasoned executive with expertise in building businesses and brands within the natural products industry. For more than 30 years she has held leadership positions with wellness-centric consumer packaged goods organizations. From April 2008 to January 2021, she was an executive at Gaia Herbs, Inc. where she also served on the Board of Directors from 2013-2021. Gaia Herbs is an award-winning natural herbal products brand offering more than 200 quality herbal products in North America. From 2016-2021 she served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Gaia, delivering catalytic growth on both the top and bottom line, as well as leading the conversion to a B Corporation. Her tenure as CEO led to her being named as one of RealLeaders 100 Women in Impact, as well as to the prestigious Inc. Best of Business list in 2020 for inspiration and innovation. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Miami University. ‎

Alicia Morga, Independent Director

Alicia Morga brings extensive digital marketing and e-commerce experience to the board and is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of No. 8 Media, Inc., which was established in 2016 and provides digital transformation services to consumer packaged goods, health, education, and financial technology companies. Prior to No. 8 Media, she managed the bill pay product for Digital Insight, NCR’s retail financial subsidiary, and before that was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Consorte Media, Inc., a digital marketing company which helped large advertisers reach the Hispanic market. Prior to Consorte, Ms. Morga worked in venture capital for The Carlyle Group and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners with a focus on the technology sector. She has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and one of the Most Influential Women in Technology by Fast Company. She holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School, a B.A. from Stanford University, and is a California Bar Member.

Jonathan Atwood, Director

Mr. Jonathan P. Atwood joined the Company’s board of directors in March, 2023, and brings extensive senior executive experience within the Consumer Packaged Goods (“CPG”) industry with roles at British American Tobacco (“BAT”), Reynolds American, Unilever and Kraft Foods. He is currently the Group Head of Business Communications for BAT and is responsible for BAT’s external, internal, and corporate brand communications with a focus on amplifying BAT’s corporate purpose of A Better Tomorrow™. Mr. Atwood was designated as a Board nominee by BAT, in connection with their November 2022 purchase of convertible debenture in Charlotte’s Web, Inc. Mr. Atwood held senior management positions at Unilever, most recently leading global supply chain communications. Prior to that, he led sustainability and corporate communications for Unilever North America. Mr. Atwood is an inspired sustainability advocate and has worked closely with certified B Corp companies.