Emblem Continues to Bolster Professional Leadership Team with Three Strategic Hires to Grow Market Share

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TORONTO, April 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Emblem Corp. (TSXV:EMC) (EMC.WT) (“Emblem” or the “Company”), a leading Canadian integrated cannabis company, is pleased to announce it has appointed Maria Guest as Chief Marketing Officer to its executive team. The Company is also pleased to welcome Kim Horrill as Vice President of Medical Marketing and Tim Andrews as Vice President, Creative Director. The foregoing appointments remain subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Prior to joining Emblem, Maria Guest spent 20 years building brands and developing new products and innovations within the highly regulated and competitive alcohol industry. Ms. Guest most recently led marketing efforts behind iconic brands like Corona, Stella Artois, Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, and Alexander Keith’s. She has also led new product innovations for prominent brands that include Budweiser, Bud Light, and Labatt Blue. Within her extensive portfolio, Ms. Guest spearheaded the successful launch of Bud Light Lime in Canada, as well as introduced Labatt’s first hard cider product to the Canadian market.

Ms. Guest will lead the Company’s adult-use strategy, including the development of unique brands that will speak to various segments of the Canadian adult-use cannabis market. As Chief Marketing Officer, Ms. Guest will leverage her extensive marketing and brand development experience, as well as her understanding of product distribution in a regulated industry to help grow Emblem’s presence across the country. 

Kim Horrill brings extensive health care and pharmaceutical experience to Emblem, including working as both a critical care nurse and an acute care nurse practitioner/clinical nurse specialist in pain management. She also spent over a decade with a major Canadian pharmaceutical company in both its Commercial and Medical Sciences Divisions and served as an Assistant Professor at Western University, teaching in the School of Medicine and Nursing. She holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Western University, a Post-Master Acute Care Nurse Practitioner from the University of Toronto, a Post-Master Business Administration from Northwestern University, and remains a member of the College of Nurses of Ontario.

As Vice President of Medical Marketing with Emblem, Ms. Horrill will oversee the Company’s medical outreach program. Along with Emblem’s team of professional medical liaisons, she will educate and engage healthcare professionals across the country on the value of medical cannabis and the benefits of Emblem’s current and future cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical formulations.

Tim Andrews was most recently founder, partner and creative director at Slide Communications. At Slide, Tim provided creative, strategy and design services for clients including Emblem Cannabis, Ayr Farmers Mutual, BridgePoint Financial, Calliope Interpreters, Executive Aviation, Great Lakes Ginseng, Pauwels Travel, and the United Way (Brant & Oakville). Prior to founding Slide, Tim provided creative and strategic leadership through broadcast, print, digital and experiential projects for Labatt, Stella Artois, Sears, Franklin Templeton Funds, The Government of Canada, Burger King, J&J, Clarica and FujiFilm.

At Emblem, Tim will be the in-house creative lead, overseeing all of the brand development and marketing collateral across our adult-use and medical product portfolios. He will work alongside our agency partners to support our go-to-market plans.

“We are both pleased and honoured to have Maria, Kim and Tim join our leadership team,” said Nick Dean, President and CEO of Emblem Corp. “One of my commitments to our shareholders when I joined as CEO was to build a world-class leadership team and a portfolio of world-class products and brands that drive demand in the market. Maria, Kim and Tim’s individual expertise and experience will be invaluable as we continue our targeted growth strategy in the ever-evolving medical and adult-use cannabis industry.”

About Emblem
Emblem Corp., through its wholly-owned subsidiary Emblem Cannabis Corporation, is a fully integrated licensed producer and distributor of medical cannabis and cannabis derivatives in Canada under the ACMPR (Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations). Led by a team of cannabis experts and former health care and pharma executives, it has three distinct verticals – cannabis production, patient education centers, and pharmaceutical dosage form development. Emblem trades under the ticker symbol EMC on the TSX Venture Exchange.

For further information contact:

Ethan Karayannopoulos
Investor Relations
Emblem Corp.
647.748.9696
ethank@emblemcorp.com

Forward-looking statements

This news release may contain “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation (together, "forward-looking statements"). All statements and information contained herein that is not clearly historical in nature may constitute a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties and contingencies that may cause actual financial results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to and involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, which may cause the Company's actual performance and results to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks identified in the Company's annual information form dated October 18, 2017 which has been filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and is available on www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise.

Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. This news release contains information obtained by the Company from third parties and believes such information to be accurate but has not independently verified such information.

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