Ini Afia earned his Master of Science degree from the renowned University of Wisconsin – Madison and draws upon more than 17 years of leadership experience as a microbiologist, analytical chemist, and lab director in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and cannabis industries. He has worked with some of the top biotech companies in the world including Abbott Labs, EMD Serono/Merck, Invitrogen Corporation, and ProCaps Laboratories. While at Digipath Labs, Ini co-authored the publication, "Terpenoid Chemoprofiles Distinguish Drug-type Cannabis sativa L. Cultivars in Nevada." Through his leadership, Ini created all methodologies and led the analytical laboratory at Cannasafe to be the premier accredited cannabis testing lab in California with over 150 employees and the greatest market-share holder in the space, at its peak. As the Scientific and Technical Director of CannaSafe, Ini consistently worked to develop and validate methodology used in assays that directly impact consumer safety, including the analysis of heavy metal contaminants from vaporizer smoke and methods to identify intoxicants in illicit products, among others. Ini is also a member of the ASTM D37 Technical Committee on Cannabis and a Scientific Committee member of both the Emerald Conference and the CannMed Conferences. In 2020, Ini co-founded Cannsultation to fill the great void left in the analytical laboratory space by adding best-in-class practices, efficiency, and integrity.

 

 

 

 

Neya Jourabchian is Co-Founder at Cannsultation with over 10 years of combined academia and industry experience. After receiving her B.S in chemistry, Neya continued her graduate studies with a full scholarship from Southern Illinois University in Organic chemistry. She continued her journey as a researcher at University of Missouri and worked on a project funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2015 resulted in a publication in the Catalysis Communication journal in September 2017. She joined Cannasafe in early 2018 and helped fulfill various state-mandated regulations including full method development and validations on all assays. While managing one the most successful cannabis testing labs in the nation, her extensive work on pesticides analysis cleanup methods in cannabis matrices and pesticide trends in California cannabis market were presented at Emerald conference in 2019 and 2020. Neya has been one of the pioneers in improving cannabis lab turn around times and efficiencies using Six Sigma and Lean methodologies. Neya applies her education and experience to help clients in cannabis testing environments achieve their goals while saving time and money.