We’re a cross-functional team of dreamers, strategists and technologists passionate about creating great experiences for cannabis retail owners, their staff members and their customers.
Gary leads Cova’s charge into the legal cannabis space by guiding the vision, strategic development, ‘go to market’ plans and culture.
Before joining Cova, Gary was a principal in over a dozen tech start-ups in the mobile communications industry ranging from small VC funded companies to Fortune 100 firms, including Onavo, which was later acquired by Facebook. In those companies he led sales, marketing, business analytics and market expansions. He has also held a multitude of leadership roles with Verizon and AT&T.
Gary holds a Degree in Finance with a Masters in Marketing from the University of Colorado. In his spare time Gary enjoys skiing, mountain biking, outdoor sports, travel and comfort food.
Ryan's philosophy is that technology should make your life better, not more complicated. As Cova's CTO, Ryan works to ensure Cova is bringing the right technology to make running your dispensary easier. With a degree in computer science, and twenty years of industry experience, Ryan has mastered the art of seamlessly integrating technology into business. He uses this experience to help deliver a world class application.
When not behind a computer or reading some nerdy technical journal, Ryan can be found making a racket on his guitars or piano, hanging out with his kids, or in his garage fabricating on his latest monstrosity.
As a VP of Product at Cova, Nicole works directly with cannabis retailers and budtenders to learn about their needs. She also makes it her number one priority to be as agile and swift as possible so that Cova can offer superior products to the industry. Before joining the team, Nicole worked as an interaction designer for iQmetrix and Inetco where she applied a user-centric design philosophy and approach to various retail products.
When she's not managing updates and rollout for Cova, Nicole enjoys hanging out with her husband and 8-year-old daughter, hitting the pavement for a morning run or trying new breweries with friends.
Nicole holds a masters degree in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia.
Faai directs Cova's marketing strategy and oversees its execution, including website, content, social media and PR.
An entrepreneur at heart, Faai was a top-ranked UBC grad student whose business savvy and innovative approach garnered her three marketing awards and a scholarship during her MBA – enough to make the entire course a free ride.
Before joining Cova, Faai directed go-to-market strategy for iQmetrix’s enterprise clients. She brought with her more than fifteen years of marketing experience, combining new and traditional media strategies across a range of industries locally and internationally. At Unilever, she launched communication campaigns that changed the fate of an underdog brand to become a second largest brand in the market. At Mars Inc, she introduced Pedigree Denta Stix to Asia-Pacific market for the first time, making dogs in Asia happy.
Faai enjoys traveling, singing, reading, hiking and eating ice cream.
As VP of Strategic Programs at Cova, Danny builds strong partnerships that ensure our industry-leading POS serves as the heart of cannabis retail’s most robust and vital tech ecosystem. His efforts provide flexible solutions and best-in-class experiences for our clients. Before joining the team, Danny worked on the executive team at iQmetrix, where he applied his entrepreneurial background to inspire a culture of curiosity, belief in oneself, and creative innovation.
When Danny isn't at Cova, he spends time with his family, and carves out opportunities to support, advise, and learn from other technology entrepreneurs who, by definition, will be the ones to extend our lives, create world peace and heal our planet.
Danny was co-founder/CEO, mentor of—and investor in—several technology start-ups with many successful exits.
Jerome’s role as Head of Design means that today he will find ways to make the Cova client experience better than it was yesterday. He has been in user experience design for over 20 years. Some of his clients have included Lululemon, Nike, A&E Networks, Intuit, and many more. He’s managed teams of designers, developers, and other managers. He has even been a Product Manager at iQmetrix on a few of their applications.
As a side project, Jerome spent 10 years as an instructor at Capilano University’s Bachelor of Design program. He always used to tell students that the job of a User Experience Designer is to simply ‘suck less’.
When he’s not in front of a keyboard, he can be found spending time with his wife and daughters. Otherwise he can be found riding his road bike, or his gravel bike, or his mountain bike, or anything else with two wheels.
As Director of Operations, Andrew and his team help Cova customers navigate the journey from implementation to successful cannabis retail operators. With an emphasis on providing an exceptional customer experience, he and his team work tirelessly to deliver a custom launch experience, with world class support and account management. Andrew’s background is rooted in wireless retail and consumer electronics, having worked for both startups and fortune 500 companies such as Hyla Mobile, Sony and Hewlett Packard.
When not supporting Cova clients, he enjoys spending time with his wife and son, enjoying the outdoors, and attending live music events.
