Leadership

Meet the Team

Carlos "Los" Arias, J.D.

Lead Principal

Carlos “Los” Arias, J.D., is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Green Horizons, a large scale cannabis business in Coachella, California. Arias is also the Principal at Psychedelics Now, a consultancy & holding company focused on the emerging psychedelics sector, that is the largest shareholder in Psychedelia Magazine & Psychedelics Today, respectively.

Arias’s mission in life is to impact the planet as an advocate for natural medicine and wellness. Arias is a graduate of Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, and moreover has trained with multiple plant and amphibian medicine modalities in Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Africa.

Arias’s core modalities are Ayahuasca, Kambo, 5-MeO-DMT (Sonoran Desert Toad and Phalaris Grass), Psilocybin, and Peyote. As a result of his lifelong interest in natural medicine and the socio-political issues associated with plant prohibition, Arias focuses his professional energy on the regulated cannabis and emerging psychedelics and wellness sectors.

Phil Valvardi

Principal

Phil Valvardi has spent most of his career leading innovative businesses within the highly regulated financial services industry and more recently in the highly regulated cannabis industry. Most recently, Phil was the CEO of Highroad Consulting Group, a leading cannabis consulting firm. Prior to that, Phil served as CFO at GlobeOne, a financial technology company developing a mobile financial platform. Phil also served as CEO of Maverick Network Solutions and presided over its acquisition by Fiserv. Phil was also President of the MAC Network, one of the largest debit networks in the U.S., which was sold to Concord EFS/First Data for approximately $900 million. Early in his career he held executive positions in the payments and financial divisions of CoreStates Financial Corp., now part of Wells Fargo Bank.

Phil sits on the board of Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University. Phil earned his BA at Saint Joseph’s University, and his MBA at Drexel University.

Simone Sandoval

Principal

Simone focuses on cannabis licensing and compliance and has extensive experience in understanding and deciphering complex cannabis regulations. Prior to entering the cannabis industry, Simone worked in Washington, D.C. as an intern for Congressman Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-36). During her time on the Hill, she worked on legislation, and researched policy on renewable energy, healthcare, and tribal relations.

Ryan Fingerhut

Principal

Ryan Fingerhut, a former practicing attorney, has devoted himself full time to the cannabis industry since 2014. Ryan focuses on cannabis consulting, licensing and compliance. Ryan and his team boast a 99% track record in license applications, with over 100 state and local cannabis licenses won in multiple states. He also boasts a perfect track record in relation to compliance with cannabis regulations. Ryan participated directly in the management of several cannabis businesses before entering the cannabis consulting business.

Paul Rosen

Principal

Paul Rosen is among a handful of the seminal pioneers of the global legalized cannabis industry, and one of its most active entrepreneurs, advisors, and investors. Paul Rosen was a co-founder of PharmaCan Capital Corp (NASDAQ: CRON; TSX: CRON), and served as its first CEO and President for four years. Under Paul’s leadership, PharmaCan / Cronos Group acquired ownership interests in a number of the initial cannabis licenses awarded in Canada, and was the 3rd cannabis company to go public in Canada.

Paul sat on the Board and chaired the audit committee of iAnthus Capital Holdings (CSE:IAN), a multi state operator of cannabis assets in the United States. Paul is co-founder and CEO of Pantry (@pantryfoodco), a cannabis focused start up in the functional food market, and the Managing Director of BreakWater Venture Capital. He has invested and/or advised over 150 companies in the global cannabis industry including Avicanna Inc. (TSE:AVCN), Tokyo Smoke (NYSE: CGC), CB2 Insights (CSE.CBII), 1933 Industries (CSE:TGIF) and Lift & Co. (TSX.V:LIFT).

Paul has enjoyed a distinguished speaking and media career. He has appeared on/in Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business, BBC Business, Nasdaq TV, Yahoo Finance, The Economist, The Street, Barrons, National Public Radio and Cheddar TV. Paul is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He received a B.A. in Economics from Western University in 1985 and an LL.B. from the University of Toronto in 1988.

Josh Lawler

Principal

Josh Lawler is a Founder of Global Go and a Partner of Zuber Lawler. At Zuber Lawler, Josh handles M&A, finance and corporate matters for private equity groups, and public and private companies, both domestically and internationally. He has also represented leading cannabis companies for over 16 years. Josh has extensive experience with complex financing and M&A deals in the cannabis space. He personally closed half a billion dollars in cannabis deals in 2019 (as well as many deals outside of the cannabis industry). He also counsels clients on post-acquisition and post-merger integration.

Josh is also one of the world’s leading blockchain attorneys, representing some of the industry’s leading companies. His work with both leading cannabis companies and leading blockchain companies positions him perhaps uniquely well to advise as to the intersection of plant and blockchain technologies.

Josh is a cum laude graduate of Northwestern University School of Law, and earned his B.S. and B.A. from Duke University.

Tom Zuber

Principal

Tom Zuber is a Founder of Global Go, and a Founder and the Managing Partner of Zuber Lawler, which represents clients around the globe in languages covering 90% of the world’s population. At Zuber Lawler, Tom is the relationship partner for some 10 Fortune 500 clients of the firm, as well as funds and government entities. He has advised some of the most iconic companies in the world on their intellectual property disputes, deals and global portfolios. He has also represented leading cannabis companies for over 16 years. He is at the cutting edge of cannabis patent and trademark law. As examples among many, he has managed teams that have applied innovative strategies to obtain meaningful federal trademark protection for cannabis brands in the U.S., and the 2nd-ever-issued U.S. plant patent for a cannabis strain.

Tom’s experience representing both Fortune clients and cannabis clients allows him a unique perspective from which to advise large non-cannabis companies as to the launch of cannabis and hemp products and services. His international experience aids Global Go clients in growing their value across sovereign borders throughout the world. Few if any attorneys or consultants in the world are as well positioned to counsel cannabis companies on building the value of their cannabis-related brands and technologies.

Tom earned a J.D. degree Columbia Law School, a masters in public policy degree from Harvard University, and a biomedical engineering degree from Rutgers University, where he graduated with highest honors.