In The Spotlight: Tom Gavin
My professional career started over 21 years ago in residential and commercial real estate finance. During my 18 year span in the industry, I not only wrote loans, but I was responsible for managing a corporate office and 4 out-of-state offices, in addition to overseeing more than 100 employees.
In 2005, I began dabbling in the marketing and advertising industry as well. After assisting with the development of an improved marketing campaign for 14 publications, I decided to start T E G Resources, Ltd., in late 2007. The boutique firm provided marketing consulting to small-medium sized businesses looking to expand within their market and become more efficient.
In September of 2015, I was presented with the opportunity to step away from the lending world and fully immerse myself into the world of Cannabis. I started as a consultant for CannaTrac Technology to assist them with their marketing plans. After helping retool the layout of the company’s marketing plan, the company hired me as the Director of Marketing in February of 2016 and quickly promoted me to Chief Operating Officer by May of 2017. During my time as COO, Iestablished relationships throughout the industry and beyond. By January of 2019, the Board of Directors had appointed me to the position of CEO.
I actually got into this business on what seemed to be good karma. I had met the founder of CannaTrac at a local restaurant about 6 months before I was hired as a consultant. He looked like he was having a rough day, so I sent him a drink and invited him to join my group of friends that were at the bar. He joined our party and we ended up becoming friends.
When it came time for Terry to hire a person to help with banking, he talked to me first. At the time, as much as I wanted the position with CannaTrac, I didn’t feel I had all of the requisite skills needed to fill the position, so I referred him to someone else. I apparently shocked him by being so honest that he hired me immediately as a consultant and I moved my way up the ranks over the next few years.
CannaTrac’s goal is to be the #1 Cashless Payment Solution; however, we have a few others too... We plan to partner with States that mandate cashless payments forthe Cannabis industry. We would like to eventually get into the B2B market. Most importantly, we want to continue make our clients, customers, and shareholders happy.
CannaTrac has partnered with In-Stand Media to bring the Cannabis industry to the red-carpet. In-Stand Media is a multimedia agency holding the rights to some of the most exclusive and sought-after media surrounding the sports, fashion, music and entertainment worlds. Through In-Stand, CannaTrac will be a sponsor at Metropolitan Fashion Week in Los Angeles this year and next year we will be a sponsor at the Grammys, Oscars, and the Golden Globes.
Believe it or not, this partnership started after I took a picture in front of the red-carpet at the ACM’s wearing a CannaCard t-shirt and it got posted on the company Facebook page. That picture apparently put me on their radar. After speaking at length with Adam from In-Stand, we really liked what they had to offer and made it official.
We are hoping this partnership does a few things… First off, we know that we helped the Cannabis industry by paving the way to open marketing of MRB’s at these events which is great, but, what makes it that much better is, by allowing the open marketing of the industry we can get away from a lot of the stigma that still surrounds Cannabis and the industry itself.
Right now, CannaTrac is working on quite a bit. We are in discussions with multiple States regarding the potential implementation cashless program mandates. This will help improve traceability of money for the States and increase safety for the public by taking cash off the street and decrease the criminal element in the industry.
CannaTrac is also working on some a few new technology projects that I can’t openly discuss just yet; however, I can tell you it will revolutionize our industry and a few others.
I used to sing and play guitar in a rock band.
I am a big fan of Animal Kingdom, the Curse of Oak Island/Civil War Gold, and Impractical Jokers.
I sit on the Board of Directors for the Disabled Patriot Fund which assists disabled American veterans who have fought in the War on Terrorism.
