Executive Management
Team
Scott Lantz
Co-Founder, CEO & Chairman
Scott Lantz is President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Sugarmade, Inc. A company he co-founded in 2009. He is responsible for the overall leadership, vision and business strategy of the Sugarmade.
Before Sugarmade, Mr. Lantz was Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Sales at a new consumer packaged goods company, The Margarita King. In that role, Scott negotiated substantial sales contracts with a number of national retailers, which included Safeway Stores, Kroger, Young’s Market and various state-owned liquor control boards. Through the utilization of his strong business acumen, The Margarita King’s products achieved national distribution.
Prior to joining The Margarita King, Mr. Lantz was one of the early hires at Autoweb.com Inc., a publicly traded lead referral website within the automotive industry. Within 18 months at Autoweb, Scott was made Vice President of Sales and Operations and a member of the senior management team. Scott managed and built a 50 person, nationally based sales team, and rapidly grew Autoweb’s sales revenues from $3 million to an excess of $25 million.
Mr. Lantz began his career in as a mechanical engineer for Western Digital, a Fortune 500 Company, where he was responsible for product design and quality assurance. He soon took on additional challenges and became involved in market analysis and product design negotiations with additional Fortune 500 companies such as Hewlett Packard and IBM. Mr. Lantz holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Santa Clara University.
Karim Merzian
Vice President Finance
As Vice President of Finance, Karim Merzian is responsible for the financial strategy of Sugarmade and its compliance with SEC regulations. Mr. Merzian works in close partnership with the senior team in growing revenue, improving profitability and creating greater shareholder value.
Before joining Sugarmade, Mr. Merzian was Chief Financial Officer at The Margarita King. Mr. Merzian has also held senior level accounting positions at Health Net, as well as corporate controller with The Walt Disney Company’s Disney Regional Entertainment Group.
Mr. Merzian was manager of corporate accounting at the Fortune 100 business supply giant, Avery Dennison. While at Avery, Mr. Merzian significantly enhanced his financial and accounting knowledge of the paper, printing and supply chain management businesses
Additionally, Mr. Merzian held positions for 5+ years as a CPA with Deloitte and Touche, where he worked on medium and large audit tax engagements. Mr. Merzian holds a B.S. in Business Administration/Accounting graduating cum laude from Cal State Northridge.
Hal S. Jackson
Vice President Sales
As Vice President of Sales, Mr. Jackson is responsible for strengthening the market for Sugarmade products across the paper industry. He also works closely with the senior team to identify potential growth markets for building the company’s revenue stream.
Mr. Jackson brings to Sugarmade 24+ years of senior sales and sales management experience with substantial Fortune 500 consumer products and food companies. Before joining Sugarmade Mr. Jackson was Vice President of Sales at Oberto Sausage Company. In that capacity, Mr. Jackson had world-wide sales responsibilities for all packaged goods products through all national distribution channels.
Mr. Jackson held strategic sales and marketing positions with Shasta Beverage, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Beverage Corp. At Shasta he became Executive Vice President and General Manager, directing all sales, all marketing and manufacturing for 21 western states. Additionally, at Shasta he became a member of the executive management team providing corporate level strategic management and sales planning input on a company-wide basis.
Mr. Jackson sales career includes time at Frito Lay, Inc. and Proctor and Gamble. Mr. Jackson holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis.
Fred Ruffin
Vice President Strategic Resources
Mr. Ruffin brings over twenty years of experience in Senior Management to Sugarmade. His skills encompass Organization Visioning, Executive Staffing, Architectural Design, Executive Leadership, Managing Diversity and Strategic resources Management.
Mr. Ruffin has been Vice President for some of Silicon Valley’s leading start-ups within the high tech, biotech, and multimedia industries. In addition to recruiting key executives for these start-up’s, his work emphasized putting in place an infrastructure that could prepare these organizations for rapid growth and the integration of multiple cultures into one new culture.
Mr. Ruffin has held senior executive positions with both Fortune 50 and 100 companies. In this capacity he has been responsible for worldwide staffing and has been effective as a mentor/advisor through executive coaching. He has also demonstrated strong Leadership skills as a management partner through several mergers and acquisitions emphasizing the impact that change can have on the organization and the individual.
Mr. Ruffin has held Senior Management positions with companies in both the private and public sectors. A strong behavioral science background, coupled with extensive business acumen has assisted him at being an effective partner to business and an effective ombudsman to management via strategic planning. Fred holds a B.A. in Industrial Relations from San Francisco State University in San Francisco, CA.