After serving three years as the executive director of the Arizona Dispensary Association and playing a fundamental role in the success and implementation of the state’s adult-use legalization initiative, Sam Richard could have moved into any segment of the market.
Running a cannabis testing lab simply played to his strengths.
In June, Richard was hired as CEO at OnPoint Laboratories, an Arizona licensed cannabis testing laboratory, and has brought to the company the same extensive knowledge about regulatory compliance and government affairs he provided as a consultant for the government during the campaign and implementation of Prop 207 in 2020.
“My background is in politics and policy, which often translate into regulatory and compliance affairs,” Richard says. “I think, at the end of the day, I understood this dance between business, compliance and science in a way that uniquely positioned me for growth into this side of the industry.”
Prior to his work in cannabis, Richard was selected for the Flinn-Brown Fellowship, which fosters civic leaders in Arizona. He was also featured in the Phoenix Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list and named a “Breakout” by the Arizona Capitol Times in recognizing the sharpest political minds in the state.
“I think that this was the natural next step for me, to be able to dive deep into the regulatory and compliance side of the industry,” Richard says of his move from the nonprofit sector to OnPoint. “There is just a lot of excitement and passion and energy around what we can do to transform compliance testing.”