10 Things You Didn’t Know about Tej Virk
Medical marijuana is increasingly becoming a popular trend in the treatment and management of different diseases including chronic and fatal ones such as Alzheimer’s disease, brain tumors, cancer, HIV/AIDS, chronic pain, and multiple sclerosis. Tej Virk is a popular name in the Medical Cannabis industry. He is the current CEO of Akanda Corp, an international medical cannabis and wellness company headquartered in the UK. However, apart from his contribution in this company, Tej has served in several positions in many other companies in various sectors. He has also made personal investments, and there may be lots of other things people may not know about him. Here are 10 things you did not know about Tej Virk.
1. Tej is an ex-banker
Tej Virk worked as global equities and capital markets banker and BMO Financial Group before joining Akanda. He served as a managing director 2008 and 2018 and was responsible for the management of major client relationships in different regions including the UK, Asia, Middle East, and Europe. His role included helping fund managersmidentify suitable idea in global equities, developing relationships with business leaders and senior managers in public companies, and linking them with potential investors.
2. Engineering background
Virk is an engineer by profession. In 2004, he graduated with a bachelor of Applied Science, specializing in system design engineering from the University of Waterloo. Previously, Tej has studied engineering at Nanyan Technological University Singapore. His engineering background has helped him excel in different fields like technology, financials, investment, and industrials. Tej’s age and background are not well-known but he started his engineering career in 2000, in Canada.
3. Wealth Kernel
Tej Virk is a seed round investor and a member of the Wealth Kernel’s advisory board. The company offers essential building blocks for creating a digital wealth proposition, providing onboarding, custody, regulatory, dealing, and technology solutions, ensuring their accessibility through a modular API platform.
4. What made him move into the Cannabis business?
Tej Virk’s journey into the cannabis business started a few years ago, when he met Bruce Linton, the former CEO of Canopy growth. At that time, he was working as a banker. Virk’s career switch was inspired by both business and personal reasons. His mother successfully used medical cannabis to treat her chronic pain, giving him a reason to venture into this industry. In addition, the high demand for medical marijuana products gave Tej a compelling reason to move into this sector and help cannabis become legit.The two factor gave him an opportunity to be part of something that will change the world.
5. Project Twenty21
Tej Virk was a founder and executive stake holder for Project Twenty21, the largest medical cannabis study in the UK. The research group published their first real-world data, gathered on medical marijuana in the country, with finding showing that legally-prescribed cannabis offers clinical significant improvements in the patients’ quality of life for individuals living with different medical conditions.
6. Canopy Growth Corporation
Virk was the managing director for Canopy Growth Corporation from January 2019 to September 2019. Founded in 2013, the Canadian company produces, distributes, and sells medical and recreational marijuana and has several subsidiaries. In 2019, Canopy growth was the largest marijuana company in the world based on the value of all shares and market capitalization. Tej was responsible for multinational expansion of the organization’s European business.
7. Khiron Life Sciences Corp
Tej Virk served as the managing director and president of Khiron Life Sciences Corp’s European division from October 2019 to June 2021. Khiron is a medical cannabis company headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia Carrera. It was started in May 2012 with the aim of promoting science, technology, medicine, innovation, and efficiency, with the responsibility and dedication to contribute to the economies of Colombia and Latam. The firm is also committed to scientific research, environmental protection a,d social structure. Virk was responsible for the multinational expansion of Khiron’s European business.
8. Tilray Inc.
Tej Virk has also worked at Tilray Incorporated, a global leader in cannabis research processing, cultivation, and distribution. The company was founded in 2013, and has its headquarters in New York City, United States. It focuses on transforming the global cannabis industry as a consumer packaged goods powerhouse, comprising diversified portfolio of well-known brands.
9. Internships
According to his LinkedIn profile ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/tej-virk-52403769/details/experience/), Tej Virk has served as an intern in several large corporations in different sectors. In 2003, he held an internship position at Barclays Investment Bank, in the UK, developing proprietary trading software. In 2002, Virk was a business analyst intern at BlackBerry, Waterloo, Ontario. His roles included analyzing defective Blackberry mobile gadgets to help enhance quality assurance. Tej Virk worked as a research analyst intern at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada in 2001. This internship earned him a 1st position in undergraduate competition involving applications in synchronous digital x-ray imaging.In addition, Virk was a programmer intern at DRDC- Canada in 2000. During this period, he modified ‘Half-life’, which is a popular video game for equipment simulation purposes.
10. Tej Co-founded Akanda
Virk did not just join Akanda as a CEO, he co-founded the company and became a chief executive officer in June 2021, when the firm was still new and focused on the medical marijuana market in Germany and the United Kingdom. According to Vesting Newsletter, Tej joined the cannabis industry with an eye on its health benefits. Tej Virk has extensive skills and experience and is in the right position to spearhead and Akanda move it into international markets. He holds outstanding European leadership experience and claims that the mistakes of the past will inform his perspective for a Canadian or non-Us cannabis market opportunity. Before joining this industry, Virk was overseeing the finances of one of the biggest players in the sector, serving as a managing director of in the Bank of Montreal’s European markets. He also participated on other business strategies and financial deals in companies like Canopy Growth and Tilray. He also has several personal investments including the Wealth Kernel, where he is a seed investor.
