Leadership Team

Fajardo brings more than 20 years of management experience to the Company. He has served as a director of the board since December 2020 and as president since 2019, and in various other roles at the Company since its establishment in 2016. Such roles include CEO in 2019 and chairman in 2018 of Clever Leaves Colombia. Prior to Clever Leaves, from 2016 to 2018, Fajardo was a founding partner of Mojo Ventures, a venture capital incubator in Colombia. Fajardo also served as CEO of IQ Outsourcing, a leading Colombian business processing outsourcing firm from 2010 to 2015, and a principal member at Booz & Company from 2000 to 2010. He obtained a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Economics from Los Andes University in Colombia.

Julián Wilches is Clever Leaves’ co-founder. Julian is in charge of structuring and maintaining the company’s relationship strategies and policies with different stakeholders of interest, including governments, regulators and communities. Prior to Clever Leaves, Julian acted as Director of Drug Policy for the Colombian Ministry of Justice and Law and was Advisor on the Presidential Programme against Illicit Crops. He was also the Deputy Director of Interinstitutional Articulation at the Attorney General’s Office. Additionally, he served as a Consultant and Advisor to the Ministry of Culture, the Colombian Institute for Rural Development – Incoder, and the “Coordination of the Culture of Law” Project – NSIC. Julian earned a B.A. in Political Science from Los Andes University and a Master’s in journalism from Alcalá de Henares University

Marta is the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Clever Leaves. She leads the company’s global legal and compliance function and has over 20 years of in-house lawyer experience. Before joining Clever Leaves as EU General Counsel in 2020, Marta served as General Counsel for Siemens, where she oversaw all legal and compliance matters across Portugal and all Portuguese-speaking African countries. She was also responsible for setting up Siemens’ legal department in these countries, as well as initiating a Legal Shared Services Center project to support several European countries. Before Siemens, Marta served as the General Counsel for Philip Morris and as the Legal Adviser for Portugal’s Minister of Culture, and she began her career by starting her own local law firm. Marta obtained her law degree from Universidade Católica de Lisboa and specialized in Legal Support to Companies at Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão.

Gustavo is the Head of Commercial: Latin America for Clever Leaves. He is in charge of designing and implementing the company’s innovation projects aiming to create tangible differentiation in the market through a high impact business model. Gustavo is founding member of Asocolcanna (Colombian Association of Cannabis Industry) and President of the Board of Directors. From the beginning of the company, he was responsible of the initial building process of Clever Leaves setting the base operational footprint in Colombia, the first products and genetics developments, and the innovation culture as well, positioned as one of the most recognized experts in multiple cannabis topics. Prior to Clever Leaves he was a Founding Partner at Mojo Ventures, a unique early-stage company builder focusing on working with start-ups and small companies to achieve unprecedented growth and profitability. For more than 12 years he had significant experience working for IQ Outsourcing – Grupo Sanford – in executive management, international expansion and technical positions mainly in the healthcare and telecommunications BPO sectors. Gustavo has a Master’s in Business Administration from Los Andes University and a B.E. of Information Technology from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

Andrew is Head of Commercial: Global (Ex-LatAm) for Clever Leaves. Andrew has more than 20+ years experience advising executives and companies on accelerating financial and operational growth in industries such as Cannabis, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Medical Devices, Banking and Not-for-profit organizations. Before joining Clever Leaves, Andrew advised more than 100 companies around the world, including 3M, Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts, The Bank of Nova Scotia, Philips, Becton Dickinson, and the YMCA on developing and implementing successful growth strategies. Miller has written two commercially published books as a key player in operational excellence: “Redefining Operational Excellence” (AMACOM, 2014), and “The Unified Theory of Profitability” (Business Expert Press, 2016).

For business inquiries, please contact Andrew at andrew.miller@cleverleaves.com

Joe Jacober has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Herbal Brands, Inc. since 2019. From 2014 to 2018, Mr. Jacober led an outsourced CEO/CMO practice and as part of that provided CEO leadership for a successful turnaround and divestiture, of a ready-to-drink fruit juice company called 1 Epic, LLC. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Jacober was President of China Mist Tea Company. From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Jacober was the founder and CEO of Innovative Brands from 2010 to 2014 which acquired the Pert Plus and Sure brands from Proctor & Gamble. Mr. Jacober was also a member of the senior management team of UTI, Inc., a for-profit education business from 2002 to 2004 and led other companies, including Belae Brands, from 1993-2001. Mr. Jacober managed the bar and liquid soap categories at The Dial Corporation from 1987 to 1993. Mr. Jacober graduated from Arizona State University and earned his MBA at University of Phoenix.

Mr. Hague joins Clever Leaves with extensive experience in providing financial leadership to various public and private entities in the pharmaceutical, biomedical, and cannabis industries. Most recently, Mr. Hague served as CEO at Aidance Scientific, an FDA-registered manufacturer of branded and private label OTC topical medications. Prior to this role, Mr. Hague was CFO of Abacus Health Products, Inc. (“Abacus”) where he led the company’s public listing and the acquisition and integration of Harmony Hemp. Mr. Hague also managed the due diligence and sale process of Abacus to hemp-derived wellness product producer and distributor, Charlotte’s Web Holdings, Inc. Additionally, at Abacus, Mr. Hague assisted with the strategy that placed one of the first OTC CBD products sold at a national retailer and assisted with brand development for Abacus’ brand, CBDMedic. Mr. Hague has also held CFO roles at Foster Corporation and Scott Brass.