Our Team

Board of Directors

Kyle Kazan

Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO

A seasoned investor and expert manager of private equity funds with over two decades of domestic and international experience, Kyle has a track record of growing de novo companies to industry leadership in the fields of fund/asset management, property management and insurance. In 1991 he began investing in real estate, eventually launching a total of 23 Private Equity funds with a current estimated value of owned and managed properties that stands above $2.75 billion. Kyle also served on the boards of multiple international investment and hedge funds before pivoting in 2016 to the regulated cannabis industry, where he closed four funds and consolidated them to form the vertically integrated Glass House Brands. Since his early service as a special education teacher and law enforcement officer, Kyle has been a vocal advocate for police reform and ending the War on Drugs and its injustices, speaking on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and appearing in many media outlets ranging from CNN to Fox. He is a frequent guest professor at NYU Stern School of Business, USC Marshall Business School, and UCLA Anderson School of Management, and Kyle is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he played varsity basketball for Hall of Fame Coach George Raveling.

Graham Farrar

Co-Founder, President & Director

Graham is a serial entrepreneur who began his career as part of the original team at Software.com, taking the company public in 1999. Shortly thereafter, he served on the board of Seacology and was part of the founding team at Sonos, where he was involved with product design, development, sales, and customer support. After Sonos, Farrar served as a board member for Heal the Ocean, was a founder and partner of ebook publishers iStoryTime Inc. and zuuka, and founded a Santa Barbara luxury rental company. He first ventured into the regulated cannabis industry by founding Elite Garden Wholesale, an agriculture technology company focused on developing products for the hydroponics industry. Farrar currently sits on the Board of Directors of The Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation.

John ‘Jay’ Nichols Jr.

Director

Mr. Nichols is an innovative leader with substantial expertise in growing and transforming companies that have strong regulatory oversight. An accomplished insurance and reinsurance executive, Jay has more than four decades of experience in corporate strategy, operations and finance. Most recently, Nichols served as Chairman of the Board and Interim CEO – by request of the board – at Protective Insurance Company, where he oversaw the acquisition of the company by Progressive Insurance Company. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Axis Reinsurance Ltd. Before this, Nichols spent 15 years at RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd, eventually serving as President of RenaissanceRe Ventures. After having joined as the Controller in 1995, Mr. Nichols spearheaded the company’s growth via strategic acquisitions and accessing third party capital through joint ventures. He also previously held senior executive and financial reporting positions at Hartford Steam Boiler and Monarch Life Insurance Company, and at the leading international forensic accounting firm, Matson, Driscoll & Damico.

Hector De La Torre

Director

Hector De La Torre is a veteran public servant with significant government and nonprofit experience. He is currently a member of the board and former two-term chair at LA Care (the largest public nonprofit health plan in the United States), a trustee and co-chair of the Obama Scholars Advisory Council at his alma mater Occidental College in Los Angeles, and an Assembly appointee member of the California Air Resources Board. De La Torre served in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010, representing the largely Latino 50th District in southeast LA County. He chaired the Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, the Rules Committee, and helped create and chair the Accountability and Administrative Review Committee during his tenure. De La Torre was recently the Executive Director of the nonprofit Gasol Foundation, which focuses on children and wellness, and the national non-profit Transamerica Center for Health Studies. Prior to his service in the Assembly, he served as Mayor and as a member of the South Gate City Council, as Judicial Administrator in the LA Superior Court, as chief of staff to the Deputy Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, and as a teacher at Edison Junior High in south LA. De La Torre received his bachelor’s degree in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College and attended the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He lives in South Gate.

George Raveling

Director

  • First African American basketball coach in the Pac-8 (now Pac-12); head coach at Washington State, University of Iowa, & USC; assistant coach of medal-winning 1984 and 1988 US Olympic teams
  • Nike’s former Director of International Basketball; former commentator for Fox Sports & CBS
  • Inducted into Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, National Collegiate Hall of Fame; recipient of John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Author of two books; co-founder (w/Michael Lombardi) of The Daily Coach leadership program
  • B.S. in Economics from Villanova University, where he is also in the Villanova Hall of Fame

Jocelyn Rosenwald

Co-Founder & Director

Jocelyn began her career as a Teach For America Corps member in New York City. In 2011, she became a founding teacher at KIPP Star Elementary School and quickly became a teacher leader. She began her career in real estate investment in 2013 with Beach Front Properties LLC and managed a $500M portfolio of opportunistic real estate investments. In November of 2016, Rosenwald began supervising the operations of 4 funds in the regulated cannabis industry which would eventually be consolidated to form Glass House Brands. Today, Rosenwald sits on the board of Glass House Brands as a director. She holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in Education from Hunter College, and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Business.

Humble Lukanga

Director

  • Founder of Life Line Financial Group, premiere wealth management firm servicing some of the best-known performers & leaders in business, sports & entertainment
  • Trustee of the University of New Mexico; Board Director for several companies & foundations
  • B.A. & M.B.A. University of New Mexico; certified CFP; UCLA Personal Finance Planning degree
  • Named to The Hollywood Reporter’s Top Business Managers list for 3 years running; New Mexico Business Weekly’s “Top 40 Under 40”

Yelena Katchko

Director

Yelena is an attorney and a founding partner of Katchko, Vitiello & Karikomi, PC, a well-regarded law firm located in Los Angeles, California with an authentic and deep-rooted presence in the local cannabis industry. At the helm of KVK’s cannabis practice group, Yelena handles intricate transactional, commercial, licensing, and regulatory compliance matters within the cannabis sphere. Ms. Katchko began representing medicinal cannabis clients in the City of Los Angeles in 2010 and has become one of the industry’s most recognized names. Her experience includes involvement in shaping the Medicinal and Adult Use cannabis regulations in both the City of Los Angeles and the State of California through her expansive professional network, pro bono affiliations, local alliances and engagements in town halls. In particular, Yelena was integral to the city-wide resolution of City of Los Angeles v. 420 Grand et al. which provided a framework for Proposition D’s limited immunity and, later, Measure M’s priority licensure. She has developed significant experience in local government matters by being a key part of discussions with officials on the constantly changing cannabis regulatory landscape and by working closely with policymakers to advocate on behalf of her clients. In addition to her professional commitments, Yelena serves as the Vice Chair of Programming for the Los Angeles County Bar Association – Cannabis Section and as affiliate counsel for the United Cannabis Business Association (UCBA), a statewide trade association built by the leaders of the California cannabis industry.