Meet the Leadership Team

Originally from central Missouri, John committed high treason and earned a BS in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Kansas. His Missouri friends and family still haven’t forgiven him. He lived in lovely Kansas City and worked in sales for 5 years before making his way out West to work for a tech start-up in Denver. Since then, he’s held leadership positions in multiple tech start-ups.

Some of John’s favorite things: I spend my free time plinking ineffectually on my guitar, scouring eBay and Discogs for good deals on Bob Pollard records, and hanging out with my family.

Marion is a serial entrepreneur who has founded, invested in, or been an advisor to over a dozen start-ups. He is a regular guest speaker at events such as Denver Start-up Week, CU Denver’s program on social entrepreneurship, and the United Nations Global Accelerator Initiative. Marion studied Architecture and Computer Science at the University of Kansas and Computer Information Systems with a minor in Business Management at Emporia State University.

Some of Marion’s favorite things: Random acts of kindness, travel, the Gipsy Kings, Engelbert Humperdinck, start-ups, Sri Lanka and cooking spicy Sri Lankan cuisine, cars.

Brooke Butler is an energetic professional who has spent the last decade building her career across four continents before returning to the US to help grow Simplifya. Heading up the local offices as a Country Director for global research and publishing firm Oxford Business Group, Brooke gained vital experience introducing a brand and products to new markets and fostering commercial partnerships with the public and private sectors. She was convinced it was the right time to move back to America after she saw how quickly the cannabis industry was growing and knew the expertise she had gained from working in some of the world’s most dynamic and regulated frontier economies could be used to help this emerging industry. Her greatest desire is to help ensure that any cannabis business setting out to operate in the legal market has a chance to thrive in this highly regulated industry.

Some of Brooke’s favorite things: travelling, frontier and emerging economies, the San Antonio Spurs, Sous-vide cooking, finding new books and all things music (bonus points awarded to anyone who listens to Fela Kuti).