Legalized marijuana has the potential to be a transformative new category in consumer goods. Yale SOM alumni are helping to define the sector. Ebele Ifedigbo ’16, co-founder of the Hood Incubator in Oakland, is working to ensure people of color—disproportionately hurt by the war on drugs—benefit as entrepreneurs in the legal arena. Brendan Kennedy ’05 and Michael Blue ’05 launched Privateer Holdings, a private equity fund with a stake in Tilray, a Canadian cannabis company whose value has rocketed since its IPO. Privateer’s share is worth $12 billion, but Kennedy isn’t aiming to cash out. He told Bloomberg, “I don’t want to get bought by AB-InBev or Diageo, I want to be that company.”
