Brandon Charles
Essex Junction,VT
Summary
Industry professional with a solid background in cannabis cultivation and extraction. Known for strong adaptability and problem-solving skills, effectively managing diverse teams and creating compliant documentation that enhances operational efficiency and supports quality assurance.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Laboratory Director
Kria Botanicals
Colchester, Vermont
06.2021 - Current
- Team delegation and management: managed and created workflow schedules for a diverse team on multiple types of extraction and manufacturing processes. Also worked directly with finance and ownership to communicate with customers on extraction reports, production reports, and timeline configurations for in house and tolling contracts.
- Direct influence on integrating a cGMP environment in a cannabis extraction and cultivation scene. I worked hand in hand with Kria's quality assurance team to create and sustain a cGMP environment throughout their facility. This included creating SOPs, spec sheets, production logs/master logs, and extraction reports for internal and external tracking. For in-house management, future third-party auditing, and CCB regulations.
- Cultivation - I've been surrounded by the cannabis plant from a young age, as my father has been a pioneer in cannabis breeding since the 1970s. I even have memories of myself as young as 10 years old helping my father to water, mix soil, and trim. It was treated and thought of as no different from a tomato plant growing up for me. Flash forward to 2024, I started my own genetic propagation and breeding company called Generation Genetics LLC, while being the Lab Director at Kria. I even went as far as applying for my own propagation license through the CCB, but due to complications with multiple requirements to obtain the license where I live, it did not work out. During this time, I met and created multiple relationships with licensed farmers around the state, and I have sold cuttings to multiple licensed growers from my genetic library that I have built through in-house phenotype selections from seed to in-house/outdoor breeding projects since 2014. I have done transactions from 10 rooted cuttings to 500 rooted cuttings with licensed growers since the rec market has opened. From creating Aquatrack templates, strain-specific spec sheets, and COAs (from onward) has allowed me to not only prove scientifically the potential of a strain given certain environmental variables, but also to practice on a commercial level to provide safe, legitimate, and commercially viable cannabis.
Nursery Assistant
Full Circle Gardens
Essex , VT
04.2015 - 10.2019
- Farm hand to Sarah Salentino, owner of Full Circle Gardens. I worked summers off and on throughout my high school career, and even my early 20s post-high school, to assist on the farm and the nursery.
- I did basic commercial agriculture work, such as mixing soil, potting, weeding, and plant identification. As I got older, I became more interested in understanding the importance of soil science, insect pest management control, and biological applications to prevent pathogens and bacteria. Working off and on throughout the years and being able to soak up so much information from the farm and Sarah, really ignited an interest in me to integrate and understand what we know about commercial propagation in basic agriculture to cannabis cultivation.
Education
High School Diploma -
Essex High School
Essex Junction, VT06-2019
Skills
- Team leadership and problem-solving
- cGMP compliance in a cannabis Extraction, Manufacturing, and Cultivation scene
- Documentation and record-keeping
- Teachable and can easily adapt to what the company needs
- Hard working and not afraid to get my hands dirty wherever there is help needed
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Laboratory Director
Kria Botanicals
06.2021 - Current
Nursery Assistant
Full Circle Gardens
04.2015 - 10.2019
High School Diploma -
Essex High School