MATTHEW R. KITTAY is a Partner in the New York office of Fox Rothschild LLP where he serves as Co-Chair of the firm's national Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group. He has deep experience as outside general counsel, structuring mergers and acquisitions and securing private equity and venture capital for a wide range of companies, particularly in the technology, software, cannabis, manufacturing and health care sectors. Matthew is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers USA as a leading corporate attorney for his transactional work with clients in the cannabis sector (2019; 2020; 2021; 2022). In 2019, he was named by The National Law Journal to its “Cannabis Law Trailblazer’ list in recognition of a string of major deals he closed in this nascent industry.

He is active in New York's venture capital community as an attorney and angel investor and has presented for and published with renowned venture capital educational and accelerator programs. Matthew is a leader in the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section, where he serves as vice-chair of the Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee.

Matthew is a graduate of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Brown University. He is a Co-Founder of Digital Brown and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. He also serves on Brown University’s Communications Advisory Committee to the President and as a volunteer scientific diver for the New York Aquarium, a program focused on environmental conservation.

Emily Paxhia is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Poseidon.

Emily has reviewed thousands of companies in the cannabis industry and has worked with countless founders in many capacities. She had helped to shape founders' pitch preparations, their go-to-market strategies/ product launches, and advised on day-to-day business operations. Emily has held board seats for multiple portfolio companies and participates as an adviser to multiple teams.

Extremely active in the investment decision making and ongoing investment oversight processes, she works closely with her partners to create meaningful deal structures, ensuring that proper governance is carried out at the company level. Further, Emily has dedicated time and energy to supporting policy groups and has served on the Board of Directors of the Marijuana Policy Project. She also currently serves on the Board of Athletes for CARE and The Initiative.

Emily has over 10 years of experience working as a consultant and researcher, and as such, has become an expert at extracting actionable insights from research and applying them to make corporations function more efficiently and successfully. She also leverages this experience to engage in detailed market analysis for determination around product-market fit and potential scalability.

Emily graduated from New York University with an M.A. in Psychology in 2008. She graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in Psychology in 2002.

Experienced attorney, compliance professional, and business strategist with a focus on all things that live at the intersection of law and cannabis. 

My former position as the leader of the International Cannabis Bar Association allows me to see the complex legal landscape of the cannabis industry emerge in real time at the local, state, federal, and international level. My background in complex financial regulation gave me the tools to understand and unwind complex regulatory structures and my deep curiosity around emerging markets drives me to explore and understand the unique rules, opportunities, players, and iterations of the developing cannabis industry.