Boris Jordan, America’s Pot King

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- Jordan, who ran Credit Suisse Group AG’s Moscow office and helped privatize Russian state assets after the fall of communism, cut a pair of deals worth more than $1.5 billion to turn Curaleaf into one of the world’s most valuable weed companies. In May he purchased Cura Partners, which makes the Select brand of vapes, then two months later bought Grassroots Cannabis, mainly for its licenses in Illinois and Michigan, which recently legalized recreational pot. (Neither deal has closed yet.) The second purchase will give it more than 70 dispensaries in 19 states, including California, with licenses to build several more. Curaleaf could potentially have greater revenue than any other cannabis company in the world next year, despite the drug’s federal prohibition in the U.S.