Travis Priddy is the founder and CEO of 369 Hemp, a startup hemp cigarette company located in Ridgeway, SC’s Opportunity Zone. Travis is a seasoned entrepreneur; in 2017 he sold his previous cannabis startup, GreenRock Botanicals, Inc., of California, to a well known publicly traded company. In 2014, after a 12 year career at Philip Morris International managing multiple international cigarette markets for the tobacco giant, Travis started his first company, Rock Vapor Technologies, Inc, which designed and manufactured electronic cigarettes in Austin, TX and San Clemente, California. Travis currently resides in Greenville, SC with his wife and 3 sons. When he is not working on his new manufacturing project with the 369 Hemp team, he can be found on the sidelines or in the dugout at one of his son’s (many) games as coach or enthusiastic supporter

Martin Steinbauer co-founded nicotine vaporizer company SMOOD, serves as the chief engineer, and holds 9 granted and pending patents. SMOOD has grown into a global business built on sustainability, advanced chemistry, IoT-enabled devices, and consumer centricity. Prior to SMOOD, Martin was an investment analyst at BlackRock in New York City. Martin graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Applied Mathematics.

Mr. Nirajkumar Patel, founder and CEO of Bidi Vapor, LLC, attended AISSMS College of Pharmacy in Pune, India, where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pharmacy in 2004. He moved to the United States in 2005. Mr. Patel also has a Master's Degree in Chemistry from the Florida Institute of Technology and holds a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification. His goal in founding Bidi Vapor was to provide a quality alternative to combustible cigarettes for adult smokers 21 and over.

Dr. Zdinak holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology, and a doctoral specialization in statistics. She has led research teams since 2005, supporting CDC, NIH, NSF, and other large-scale grants and projects. She has served as a Social Scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and later as a Director of Applied Research and Evaluation at a management consulting firm in Maryland. In these capacities she helped to design research program evaluations, with her most memorable efforts leading a team of researchers and physicians to develop an Intimate Partner Violence/Domestic Violence prevention and response e-learning curriculum. This was one of the only programs of its kind in the United States at that time, training over 7,000 health care providers to assess for and respond to domestic and sexual violence in over 80 clinical settings. Dr. Zdinak is passionate about developing this type of program related to nicotine and tobacco products.

Following her public health experience, Dr. Zdinak spent 6 years at Altria, where she designed, led, and reported on Perception and Behavior studies for various PMTAs. She also spent time leading product research focused on innovation and future harm reduction opportunities. She now serves as Chief Research Officer and Owner of Applied Research and Analysis Company (ARAC), where she leads a team of Ph.D. and Master’s level behavioral scientists in conducting quantitative and qualitative research. This team specializes in TPPI studies, Human Factors and Label Comprehension research, and Actual Use and Longitudinal Experimental Switching Studies. The ARAC team understands that in this regulatory environment, outside researchers must be strategic thinkers and partners in the product innovation, PMTA, and MRTPA process.

Eric Gotting represents Keller and Heckman’s clients in litigation and related matters, specializing in complex civil and appellate matters, internal investigations, and regulatory compliance. With an extensive background in environmental and FDA law, he has expanded his practice over the years to cover many of Keller and Heckman’s industry sectors and regulatory areas, including tobacco and e-vapor. Eric is a former Am Law 50 litigation partner and U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Trial Attorney. Eric’s practice spans a broad range of legal issues, including administrative and constitutional law, agency enforcement actions, toxic torts, product liability, general business litigation, and regulatory advice. He works with a diverse set of industries, including chemicals, plastics, pesticides, fuels and pipelines, food and packaging, consumer goods, telecommunications, and e-cigarettes. As a litigator, Eric has tried cases to verdict and argued appeals before federal and state courts across the country. His experience includes class actions, mass tort litigation, AAA arbitrations, and agency proceedings. Eric has also litigated challenges to federal and state statutes, regulations, and orders, including PMTA marketing denial orders. He has particular expertise involving the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the Dormant Commerce Clause, the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and federal preemption. He has also filed amicus briefs in litigation involving regulatory issues facing a variety of industry sectors, including on behalf of the e-vapor industry.

Dr. Vincent Angelico is a co-founder of Accorto Regulatory Solutions and serves as its Chief Science Officer. In this role, Vince spends most of his time working with clients to formulate cost effective and successful regulatory strategies that meet client and FDA expectations.  Prior to joining Accorto, Vince was a senior executive at Blackbriar Regulatory Services, where he provided scientific and regulatory consulting to several alternative nicotine products companies and developed the regulatory strategy for Avail Vapor LLC, which ultimately submitted some of the few pre-market applications that the FDA did not reject in this constantly changing newly regulated market.  Vince developed his professional career working in the in the pharmaceutical industry, starting out as research and development chemist at Merck & Co Pharmaceuticals.  While at Merck, Vince helped develop products in the new drug pipeline and moved through the ranks to become a product development team leader.  His work led to regulatory filings on the notable cholesterol regulating drug ZOCOR™ (simvastatin).  Vince later worked for the German based pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), where he was assigned to their active ingredient manufacturing site in Petersburg Virginia.  Vince served in several different leadership roles for BI before ultimately becoming the Director of Manufacturing Operations in 2012.  Vince holds a BS in Chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Arizona.

Jennifer H. Smith, Ph.D. serves as Associate Fellow, Scientific Strategy & Advocacy, for Altria Client Services (ALCS) in Richmond, VA. In this role, she leads and coordinates the development and execution of scientific strategies that support regulatory submissions and engagement for innovative smoke-free tobacco products, including oral tobacco derived nicotine.

Since joining Altria in 2003, Dr. Smith has held numerous research and leadership positions within Altria. Most recently, she served as Director, Regulatory Advocacy, where she led the development of advocacy strategies for reduced-risk tobacco product standards and the creation of responses to FDA dockets related to proposed rulemaking.

Prior to joining Altria, Dr. Smith earned a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. There she studied novel materials for chromatographic separations, conducted research supporting Homeland Security, and taught short courses for the American Chemical Society. She also holds a Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) from the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society.

Regulatory Affairs Certification, Regulatory Affairs Professional Society, 2019

Ph.D., Analytical Chemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 2002

B.S., Chemistry, Emory & Henry College, Emory, VA 1998

Dave DeJean is responsible for Systech’s strategic opportunities. He supports and educates customers and stakeholders on best practices for implementing enterprise serialization, traceability and authentication solutions. Dave brings over 35 years of market knowledge and hands-on experience in regulatory compliance, brand protection and supply chain traceability solution development and project methodology. He is a subject matter expert in packaging execution systems, product identification and supply chain transparency with a focus on pharma—one of the world's most heavily regulated industries.

Gerald "Jerry" Donnini II is a shareholder of the Law Offices of Moffa, Sutton, & Donnini, P.A. He is also president and founder of Tobacco Tax Refund, Inc, which focuses on state tax and licensing issues in the tobacco and vape industry.  Mr. Donnini concentrates in the area of state tax and licensing matters, with a heavy emphasis on the tobacco, convenience store and petroleum industries. He has represented and handled millions of dollars in tobacco and vape tax refunds and assessments for distributors and retailers nationwide.

Sky is an experienced electrical engineer with over 25 years of experience ranging across numerous industries including telecommunications, appliances, petrochemical, and tobacco. As a Master Scientist within the Reynolds American Group, Sky supports regulatory submission activities through device product development, testing and reporting for Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) and Tobacco Heated Products (THP). Sky has supported several of Reynolds American’s Premarket Tobacco Product Applications (PMTA), including Vuse Solo, which received a Marketing Granted Order from the FDA in October of 2021. He also supports engineering design projects related to youth access prevention. Sky is a strong advocate of Tobacco Harm Reduction and potentially reduced risk products, and he is an expert on ENDS and THP devices.

Tim Phillips is the Managing Director of Tamarind Intelligence, publisher of leading business intelligence services ECigIntelligence, CBD-Intel and TobaccoIntelligence. These independent market data and regulatory tracking and analysis services for the vape, CBD and tobacco-alternatives industries provide market-leading insights into the sectors they cover for clients ranging from governments and academic institutions to multinational companies and professional service providers.

Tim Phillips is a UK-qualified attorney, having worked at the European Commission, international law firm Herbert Smith, media companies BSkyB and AOL, and Betfair, where he worked in various legal and government relations roles as the company went through its IPO. He was also a partner in a New York venture capital-funded start-up in the diamond sector. Tim holds a postgraduate diploma in legal practice from the University of Law, London and a masters degree in geology from Oxford University. He has run for Tamarind Intelligence for the past 6 years.

Chief Scientific Adviser

As Labstat’s Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA), Mr. Joza monitors the development of new and emerging technologies, to adapt the testing services offered by Labstat to these products. Mr. Joza joined Labstat in 1990 and was actively involved in the growth of Labstat through the development and implementation of procedures used by both the food and tobacco characterization programs. Mr. Joza is highly experienced in the development, management and translation of testing information to a variety of audiences.

As Labstat’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO), he occupied a senior role in facilitating the company’s scientific research and analytical functions. He has been the presenter or co-author of more than 40 presentations at international research conferences or workshops, and has co-authored 10 peer-reviewed publications. As a Chartered Chemist with the Association of the Chemical Profession of Ontario, Mr. Joza is a recognized global expert in his field and is an active member of several CORESTA (Cooperation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco) study groups involved with various types of product testing.

Peter is an active member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tobacco Laboratory Network (TobLabNet), as well as the International Standards Organization ISO TC126 (Tobacco Products), ISO TC126/WG3 (Vaping Products) and ISO TC126/WG22 (Heated Products). Mr. Joza attended McMaster University and received his B.Sc (Majors) Chemistry in 1988.

Senior Director for Dietary Supplement and Tobacco Services

Shelly Blackwell brings over 22 years of quality and compliance experience in highly regulated environments to the EAS Consulting Group. After starting her career as a Microbiologist, she gained expert knowledge of a variety of domestic and international regulations while holding senior leadership positions in the dietary supplement, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries. These positions include 7 years as the Quality Assurance Director for GNC / Nutra Manufacturing and most recently leading the Quality Systems and Compliance Team at Bausch and Lomb in Greenville, SC.

Shelly’s accomplishments while leading Quality teams include developing supplier qualification programs, sourcing and implementing electronic QMS systems, implementing inspection readiness programs resulting in improved regulatory standing, risk-based quality system development, data integrity program development, and numerous successful continuous improvement initiatives. She has lead FDA and other regulatory inspections throughout her career and is also a lead auditor herself, auditing raw material suppliers and finished product manufacturers all over the world. Shelly holds certifications from the American Society of Quality and the Institute of Food Technology and has a Biology degree from James Madison University.

• Over 25 years’ experience in electro-mechanical product development and consultancy, most notably with medical devices and Next Generation Nicotine Products (NGPs)
• A proven background in novel and innovative product development, with over 70 published patent applications for electronic vapor and heated tobacco products