Chris Fontes

CEO at US Hemp Authority

Speaker

Chris Fontes is the Co-founder and CEO of High Spirits, the first brand to successfully bring hemp-derived Delta-9 THC to market at a national scale. He is a cannabis and hemp policy leader, best known for pioneering federally compliant THC and helping shape the modern psychoactive hemp market.

A lifelong entrepreneur and innovator, Fontes began his career in technology and leveraged this expertise to create the Hemp Exchange and Project Hemp Flower, where he compiled complex regulations, countless products, and diverse operators throughout the country into a practical e-commerce platform for the hemp industry.

While immersing himself in the hemp industry, Fontes identified a legal pathway for intentionally dosed hemp-derived Delta-9 THC products via the 2018 Farm Bill. He created Trojan Horse Cannabis with the first intentionally dosed Delta-9 products, before founding High Spirits to catalyze an entirely new consumer category that has become a multi-billion dollar industry in just a few years.

Fontes is a committed activist who has played an influential role supporting the burgeoning hemp market via industry policy and has served in leadership and advisory roles across multiple national trade organizations including: the U.S. Hemp Authority, Cannabis Beverage Association, the Hemp Beverage Alliance, The Association of Western Hemp Professionals, the Colorado Hemp Association, the National Industrial Hemp Council and the U.S. Hemp Roundtable.

Driven to normalize cannabis and hemp, increase consumer access, and empower market structures that favor small operators, Fontes has been consulted by lawmakers, attorneys and brands navigating the cannabinoid market.

Fontes lives and works in Colorado, where he continues to build, advocate and challenge outdated cannabis and hemp frameworks.