We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mahjabeen Sulemanjee-Bortocek a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mahjabeen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
As cliché as it may be, my father is my hero! As a young immigrant man, he moved our family to the United States where my life would forever change. The opportunities that opened for me could have never happened in my native country, Pakistan. My father’s decision to move us had an incredible impact on my life that he could never have predicted. However, his brave choice to change his country of residency single handedly changed the trajectory of our lives. His astute business acumen and brave soul led our family to live a more than comfortable life and allowed me the education I am so proud of today. I have two master’s degrees; one in public health and another in business administration. Both of which have helped me guide myself through the start and success of my businesses. My father taught me business every day as we discussed topics of all sorts at the dinner table, but more importantly, my father and mother taught me compassion and how to work well with others and that is a lesson I cherish deeply.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Mahja Sulemanjee-Bortocek founded High Haven in 2019 after identifying innovative and necessary solutions for cannabis companies to scale while putting the consumer first. Mahja’s expertise includes nearly a decade of cannabis experience working in the Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio medical markets spanning various roles including Director of Marketing and Outreach and Chief Communications Officer. Notably, Mahja served as Interim Chief Communications Officer for leading multi-state-operator Grassroots Cannabis up until it was acquired by Curaleaf Holdings in 2020. High Haven is positioned to open vertically integrated cannabis businesses in Illinois and beyond and aims to build upon the company’s success in those markets to share the team’s operational excellence with states nationwide. Prior to joining the cannabis space, Mahja worked in healthcare business development for over 15 years and has two master’s degree one in Public Health and one in Business Administration. Mahja’s passion to help others is evident in her valiant and persistent efforts in community service. She has been awarded and held officer and board positions for several organizations. Mahja aspires to bring awareness, safe accessibility, and compassion to the cannabis industry.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
When the medical program began in Illinois, all patients had to register with the state medical cannabis pilot program. As part of the application process, qualifying patients had to submit fingerprints to obtain a medical card. In many cases, these patients were very sick, or worse, terminally ill. Getting their fingerprints was not an easy task. Moreover, the state started to experience a higher volume of card applicants and was backed up delaying the issuance of cards by 3-6 months. At that time, I contacted a State Senator who was kind enough to coordinate meetings with the head of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Services. After that meeting, fingerprints were removed from the medical patient registry application process. I am extremely proud of that achievement and confident that it made access to medical cannabis that much more accessible.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
At High Haven, we greatly appreciate and value our customers. They are not only customers to us, but they are part of our world, as they are the roots to cannabis culture. Many of these customers are patients, and with that in mind, we selectively choose our products and every item on our shelves. Interacting with our customers is a pleasure and we make sure they feel valued every step of the way. Whether that be from curated events, sales & promotions, to giveaways and respectful exchanges. The customer and employee interactions are one factor we pride ourselves on.
Learning my craft: Let me start by describing what I think my craft is. I have built my career by supporting companies from startups just launching to exits. I have worked tediously on bringing integrity at the forefront of all my projects. Over the past twenty-five years, I have worked in corporate settings and studied organizational design and developed strategies that help any capable business earn more revenue. It is never an easy task, however, it is about understanding the current business situation and history, identifying pain points and mismanaged processes, and finding and implementing sustainable solutions that can grow and evolve with the organization. This happens through collaboration with teams, departments, and is a direct result of the human beings involved.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.highhavencannabis.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mahjabeen2982/ | High Haven: @highhavenofficial
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahjabeensulemanjee/