OUR MISSION

Establishing and maintaining lasting relationships with Orange County operators and local legislatures to promote equitable opportunity and advancement within the cannabis industry.

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ABOUT US

Orange County Advocacy Alliance (OCAA) is a unified coalition of cannabis operators dedicated to advancing the industry through community, partnerships, and municipal engagement. Founded in 2022, in Santa Ana, CA, OCAA remains committed to fostering relationships with city and state officials to address areas of opportunity that will lead to growth and transparency within the cannabis industry. The strong, collective voice of OCAA is focused on promoting cannabis education and developing new frontiers to enhance operations, commerce, and legislation.

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OCAA Members

KEVEN BRAHMBHATT

PRESIDENT

Brahmbhatt is the owner and founder of Excelbis Labs, a State licensed cannabis testing lab. Before engaging in cannabis, Brahmbhatt was the owner of a medical device distribution company that worked primarily with physicians, athletes, celebrities, and large-scale medical settings around the world. His focus was on helping to implement medical and hyperbaric solutions for customers.

Brahmbhatt’s strengths include building relationships, strategic partnerships, and go-to-market strategies. He specializes in operating a business within the scopes of highly regulated industries such as the medical space and the legal cannabis market.
Brahmbhatt graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle, and studied Business Marketing/Communications with a minor in Political Science. During his time there Brahmbhatt played for the school Ice hockey team and was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

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AMY MASON

VICE PRESIDENT

Mason is an executive at Unrivaled Brands, having joined the company following Unrivaled’s acquisition of People’s OC in 2019 where she served as Managing Director. Her professional background includes strategic marketing and communications with a proven track record of helping global brands, organizations and leaders successfully navigate emerging industries, reputation recovery, organizational transformation and disruptive innovation.

With nearly three decades of experience, Amy has led multiple global marketing and communications teams through the development and execution of 150+ product and service offerings, three dozen global brand visibility campaigns and several corporate turnarounds, including those at Starbucks, Yum! Brands/Taco Bell and Dine Brands Global.

Based in Orange County, Amy is a board member of The DiscoveryCube OC and has served on the Planning Commission for the City of Tustin, CA since 2016 (Chair 2020/21; 2021/22).

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ROUZBEH VAHDATPOUR

Born in 1974 to immigrant parents attending the University of Southern California, Mr. Vahdatpour graduated from Palos Verdes Peninsula in 1992, lettering in both football and wrestling. He then attended Chapman University, located in Orange County, graduating in 1998 with a degree in Economics. During his time in college, Mr. Vahdatpour worked nights as a forklift operator and became a member of the Teamsters Union, learning the power of collaboration and collective effort. After graduating, Mr. Vahdatpour moved to San Francisco and became a Deputy Special Inspector for Structural Quality Assurance. He worked on construction projects in the Bay area for three years and then moved to Las Vegas where he worked on hotel and casino projects for the next five years.

In 2008, Mr. Vahdatpour moved to Long Beach and put his vast business experience to work in the medical cannabis industry, which he saw as lacking an innovative brand and customer experience. Mr. Vahdatpour has previously spent ten years in cannabis cultivation but transitioned to retail because he wanted to bring to the creativity he saw was lacking. It was here that he began construction on Tropicanna Santa Ana, a cannabis retail store in Orange County. Tropicanna Santa Ana opened on August 3, 2019.

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RAY ISKANDER

TREASURER

Ray is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in health and wellness-related companies.

In 2016, following the passage of Prop 64, Ray and his business partner founded Bud Technology., Inc. Bud Technology was the first licensed Distributor in the State of California holding license C11-0000001-LIC and has gone on to hold licenses in manufacturing and non-storefront retail throughout California and most recently opening distribution in Santa Ana, California.

Prior to founding Bud Technology, Ray owned and operated the largest ambulance company in Southern California with over 650 employees and 125 ambulances, providing the highest level of patient care to over 140,000 patients a year. Ray also

founded and operates Medterra CBD, the country’s fourth largest CBD company.

Ray’s expertise includes business development, government relations, policy development, cannabis compliance, finance, operations, and community development and serves as the Treasurer of the OCAA.

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JAMES SHIH

SECRETARY

James is the founder of My Green Network, California's first cannabis cloud kitchen. His vision is to disrupt traditional cannabis by creating affordable, compliant access for minorities, artisans, and legacy and current operators while trailblazing a streamlined path to success.

As a Taiwanese-American attorney over the past decade, James has provided cannabis, real-estate, business, and compliance advice for high-net-worth individuals and project developers in investments valuing over $2 billion, including fortune 500 brands such as Hyatt.

James is currently on the board of the Orange County Advocacy Alliance and the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.

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MIKE KELLY

My name is Mike Kelly. I have worked full time in the cannabis space since 2009. I opened my first dispensary in Santa Ana in October of that year and have been in the space ever since. I have touched almost every part of the industry at some point. Besides retail I have 2 grow facilities with Falcon brands. G1 lab in Cathedral City where we do a lot of manufacturing. Partnered in a Transport company and founded a cannabis media company Cannabis Talk 101.

I was one of the Founding Members of Measure CC to Legalize the cannabis industry in Santa Ana in 2013 and sit on the board of many other similar organizations.

Owner:

Packz Distro/ Savage Valley Distribution

Partner:

Falcon Brands, Medicine Woman Distribution, Secured Hauling Transport Wu-goo.

Founder:

Aloha Dispensary, Speakeasy Vape, G1 Laboratories, Cannabis Talk 101

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GIVING BACK

The OCAA is committed to giving back to the community in which its members operate. In addition to individual contributions, our members have donated their time, product, and expertise to produce and sell a high-quality 1g hybrid $5 pre-roll across Santa Ana dispensaries in which 100% of proceeds go directly to support community impact programs throughout Santa Ana.

If would like to purchase OCAA pre-rolls and support Santa Ana community benefits, visit one of the following retail locations:

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