Leadership

Drew Spiegel CEO & Co-Founder

Drew is an accomplished entrepreneur with a proven track record. While studying at Indiana University, he co-founded the successful social media marketing boutique Loudley. Loudley’s clients include Live Nation – a Fortune 500 event host – and Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com. Using his marketing company as a platform, Drew began to focus on e-commerce and pioneered the free plus shipping business model in a number of consumer markets. He joined GVB in 2018.

Jack Feldman President & Co-Founder

Jack became interested in the burgeoning legal cannabidiol industry after receiving his BS in Finance from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business in 2016. While serving in various financial functions at Fisher Investments, he conducted extensive research on equipment and methods of CBD extraction. This led to the first business plan for GVB Biopharma, which he co-founded in 2017.

Phillip Swindells COO & Co-Founder

Phil has managed GVB’s farming and manufacturing operations since the company’s inception. Through hands-on experience and a commitment to innovation, he has become an international expert in the field of CBD extraction and scaled CBD production. Phil is a graduate of Colby College in Maine with a BA degree in economics.

Sebastian Ravitz Chief Marketing Officer

Sebastian is a dynamic entrepreneur with a history of successful ventures. During his time at Chapman University, he co-founded a student marketplace for trading goods and services. His journey continued at Eekoh, a start-up news aggregation platform leveraging AI. From there, he joined Trendy Butler’s founding team, enhancing men’s fashion with machine learning. After Trendy Butler, Sebastian embarked on a new venture, founding Loudley, a digital marketing agency that quickly gained traction and attracted high-profile clients such as Live Nation, Electric Family, and the Chinese e-commerce titan JD.com. In 2019, Sebastian brought his expertise to GVB, joining as the Chief Marketing Officer, where he continues to drive growth and innovation.

Joe Maher Chief Financial Officer

Joe is a seasoned financial professional with extensive experience in multiple roles. After graduating from Colby College with a BA in Economics-Mathematics, Joe began his career at Bain & Company in Boston. From there, he helped open the firm’s Seattle office while in a dual FP&A and Revenue Manager role, overseeing much of the firm’s West Coast operations. While in Seattle, Joe earned his MBA from the University of Washington. Upon graduation in 2021, Joe joined GVB as VP of Finance and has since helped professionalize the financial department, including leading the firm to unqualified audit options in each of the last 3 years. He currently acts as CFO and Controller of GVB, a position he has held since 2022.

Jonathan Staffeldt Chief Legal Officer

Jonathan Staffeldt is a seasoned attorney with a diverse professional background well suited for his role as Chief Legal Officer. After graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in accounting, he decided to continue his education with a law degree from UCLA. Jonathan began his professional career as a corporate attorney working on a variety of transactional matters including mergers and acquisitions, contract negotiations, and debt and equity financings. Later, he practiced at a boutique litigation firm representing clients in complex civil matters. Jonathan then moved in-house as assistant general counsel at a medical company prior to joining GVB in 2019.

Gabi de la Guardia Executive Chief of Staff

Gabi has dedicated her career to supporting and developing internal business operations for several startup companies in multiple industries. Gabi was born and raised in Havana, Cuba where she attended the Superior Institute of Design. After relocating to the US in 2013, she pursued a career in the Art Industry and worked as a Gallery Manager in a boutique Latin American Art Gallery where she oversaw all planning, preparation, and maintenance of exhibits and gallery operations as well as client relationships within the US and International market. Having found a passion for Business Management and Administration, she later joined one of her best friends to help him build his startup car dealership from the ground up, growing the business from one to two locations within a year’s time by automating all internal processes and handling all employee relationships and managerial responsibilities. Gabi joined GVB Biopharma in 2019.

John Eberhard SVP of Operations, White Label

John Eberhard brings with him more than 25 years of sales and operational experience working for the largest Institutional blown film manufacturer and mineral additives companies in the USA. In his early career in plastic film; John worked his way from Sales Associate to General Manager of the Western region with a total of $60+ million in sales. John transitioned back into Sales Management working for the largest mineral additives company in the USA servicing the plastics industry. In this role, John managed numerous fortune 150 OEM’s and converters with over 50+ million in sales responsibility. John is married to his wife Carrie and enjoys fly fishing in the northwest. John joined GVB in 2020.

Sunny Garcia Vice President of Project Management

Before coming to GVB Biopharma, Sunny worked as a large-scale event coordinator in the U.S. and internationally. She then moved into production as a producer for TV and commercials in Los Angeles, CA. Working with many departments overseeing schedules and putting efficiency procedures in place to improve communication and success between departments. She graduated with a double major in Business and Communications from the University Of Colorado Boulder. She joined GVB Biopharma in 2019.

Keith Manley Vice President of Sales

Keith Manley began his career in the capital markets division at Wells Fargo. Keith spent 17 years as an institutional bond salesman and later as a top-producing institutional equity salesman/SVP at Wedbush covering some of the globe’s largest hedge funds and money managers. In 2011, Keith co-founded Arc9, a digital asset management/project management software platform, one of the first platforms to render CG on the cloud. After exiting Arc9, Keith has spent the last 7 years as a top producing SaaS enterprise sales director and sales manager at Xant/InsideSales, Lucid Software and Freshlime until joining GVB in 2021.

Bharath Pogula Director of Research & Development, GVB Oregon

After graduating from Kakatiya University, India with a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy, Bharath moved to the United States to continue his education and received a Master’s Degree in Chemistry from Lamar University. Bharath started his career as a technician and worked his way up at Inspectorate America Corporation. After two years, he moved on to join Insys Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company specialized in manufacturing Synthetic CBD and Δ9-THC. Insys’ main product was Subsys, used to relieve peaks of pain in cancer patients. Bharath, having an inborn quantitative aptitude & determined to carve a successful and satisfying career in the industry, joined GVB in 2019. He is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer.

Cole Van Brunt Business Development Executive

After graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2017, Cole joined KO Acquisitions, an M&A focused boutique investment bank specializing in the newly regulated California cannabis industry. Successfully closing deals on both the buy-side and the sell-side, Cole has experience working with many of the largest cannabis companies in the industry spanning the sectors of genetics, cultivation, distribution, retail, branded products and delivery. Cole joined GVB in 2021.