Terry Booth founded Aurora Cannabis Inc. in 2006 along with Chris Mayerson, Steve Dobler, and Dale Lesack. The founders built the company’s first facility in more than 160 acres parcel of land in Mountain View County, Alberta.
In 2014, Aurora obtained its license to grow cannabis. This made them the first producers of cannabis to acquire a federal license in the province. In that same year, they brought the company in Alberta and were issued their first license to sell medical cannabis by Health Canada. Meanwhile, they were granted a license to sell cannabis oils in 2017.
Booth manages the corporate strategies of Aurora Cannabis. These include genetics development, operations, sales, operations, regulatory affairs, and patient acquisition.
He was confident that Canada is going to be one of the countries to pave the way to the legalization of cannabis worldwide. For this reason, the former Aurora CEO made the company into one of the most valuable producers of cannabis in the world, next to its biggest competitor, Canopy Growth. However, that was in 2019.
The Effect of Booth’s Retirement
In late 2019, the pot stock of Canada collapsed. Even the revenues of major cannabis companies fell short because of weed overstock. In line with this, Booth immediately announced his retirement as Aurora Cannabis lays off around 500 employees in an attempt to save money.
Furthermore, the bank lenders of the company came up with new terms, which now require Aurora to become cash-flow positive. As the rumors of Booth’s resignation and layoffs began to circulate, the price of the stock of the company decreased by 5.6%, which left it at only $2. Additionally, Aurora showed poor performance in its December quarter as the sales of cannabis in Canada declined by 10% sequentially.
Cutting His Stakes
Booth served as Aurora’s CEO for seven years. He was replaced by Michael Singer, the executive chairman of the company as on an interim basis. Nevertheless, he’s still part of the board, taking on a strategic advisory role. Booth said in an email he sent to BNN Bloomberg, “the market volatility with respect to COVID-19 and a number of opportunities in the industry led to me taking some cash to the sidelines.”
Following Booth’s retirement in February 2020, his second officer-in-command, Cam Battley, made his way out of the company’s door as well. With the departure of Booth, the pot industry of Canada said goodbye to one of its pioneering entrepreneurs. According to Aurora’s interim CEO, Michael Singer, “Booth helped set the table for the company to lead in Canada and around the world.”
Terry Booth sold an estimate of 12.2 million shares in the open market, lowering his stake in Aurora Cannabis by about two-thirds. He sold his stakes in a series of transactions through an investment channel in March. The stake sale earned him C$13.6 million, with which he’s looking to invest in business opportunities in the future. Today, he owns over 6 million shares of the company and options either through or directly from his investment company.
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