Former Wrigley CEO will run Austin dispensary
William “Beau” Wrigley Jr., billionaire heir of the Wrigley chewing gum company, where he served as chairman, president and CEO, now leads a medical cannabis business soon to operate an Austin dispensary. Surterra Wellness, one of three companies licensed to cultivate and sell medical cannabis in Texas, named Wrigley its new chairman Monday. Wrigley also invested $65 million into the Georgia-based company with existing dispensaries in Florida.
Wrigley becomes the latest executive bringing high-level corporate experience to the growing legal cannabis market. The U.S. industry, valued at about $11 billion this year, is projected to grow to $23 billion by 2022.
“I haven’t been this excited about a business in a very long time,” Wrigley said in a statement. “We have an incredible and incredibly professional team that is approaching this industry with a great deal of dis-
cipline.”
Since Mars acquired the Wrigley Co. in 2008, Beau Wrigley has served on the board of various technology, media, and health and wellness companies.
Surterra CEO Jake Bergmann said Wrigley’s reputation and expertise in building trusted consumer brands should boost the image of both Surterra and the U.S. cannabis industry as a whole.
“It validates a lot of what we’ve been working on,” Bergmann said.
Wrigley’s involvement with Surterra did not surprise Heather Fazio with Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy. In recent years, other leaders have publicly expressed interest in the growing legal market. Former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner this spring joined the board of a New Yorkbased cannabis company.
News of appointments such as Wrigley’s is likely to become the norm, Fazio said.
“It’s only a matter of time,” she said.
For now, though, Texas’ legal cannabis remains limited. Under the Compassionate Use Program, only three companies, including Surterra, have licenses to operate dispensaries of low-THC cannabidiol oil in the state. They can serve only patients with intractable epilepsy.
But patient advocacy groups are pushing for legislation to expand the program’s reach by adding qualified diagnoses and expanding the number of providers. Fazio said business leaders like Wrigley, who say they are committed to patients who could benefit from legal cannabis, can be strong advocates for an expanded program here.
Suterra plans to roll out the first batches of medicine in Texas in the coming weeks. Its goal is to open a wellness center where patients can pick up their prescriptions.
With the $65 million from Wrigley’s investment firm, the company plans to conduct clinical research trials focusing on cannabinoid treatment of anxiety, pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and other medical conditions.
“This is about helping people,” Wrigley said in a statement. “It can give people a normal life, let them go to school and be a normal member of society.”