Chemistree Technology Inc (CNSX:CHM) is certainly not a household name among most cannabis investors, but they are attracting high profile talent to the fold. In perhaps a precursor of additional things to come, the company retained a significant figure to its Board of Directors.

That individual is Mr. Nicholas J. Zitelli, currently part-owner, Director, and Chief Cannabis Officer of Trans High Corporation (THC)—the parent company for all High Times brands. That includes its 45-year old flagship magazine property everyone is familiar with, along with all related media and event platforms—including the iconic Cannabis Cup. It’s a pretty big slash for a company that isn’t yet on most investor’s radar.

Since 2007, Mr. Zitelli has authored hundreds of articles covering all aspects of cannabis science and technology under the pen name “Nico Escondido”. He has garnered a reputation as an industry SME, leading to numerous appointments across several industry lobbying committees and policy think tanks. As the current CEO of Applied Cannabis Sciences (ACS) of New Jersey, Mr. Zitelli is leading a group that carries over a dozen cannabis licenses across several U.S. states.

Most recently, Mr. Zitelli was selected to the Board of the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association (NJCBA), where he continues to build on cannabis-related issues in New Jersey. Presumably he will help on the lobbying side, where Democrats were unable to muster enough support to pass a recreational legalization measure in March.

During his tenure at High Times, Mr. Zitelli served as Competition Director for High Times’ Cannabis Cup event. Of note, he was responsible for digitizing the platform and creating a proprietary scoring algorithm for cannabis products that included both patient-driven qualitative criteria as well as lab-derived quantitative data. As such Mr. Zitelli owns and controls the world’s largest known cannabis database, containing over 30,000 cannabis strains and products.

A invaluable genetic goldmine, if you will.

Nicholas Zitelli’s complete list of credentials are defined more precisely in the press release.

Is today’s presser actionable enought to move the needle with investors in isolation? Probably not. But it does make us wonder how a relatively obscure cannabis company with modest-sized assets was able to attract such a talent. Often times, such an executive snag mismatch can be a precursor for more material news flow to come. High profile power players don’t join Boards of unknown companies “just because”.

Midas Letter will have further coverage on Chemistree Technology as warranted.