OUR STORY
9Fiber was born out of curiosity and the need to solve a cannabis waste problem. In early 2015, our process inventor, Adam Powars, who was also a cannabis grower, had a mounting stalk and stem waste problem. Struggling to find an environmentally sound solution, he had a thought after learning about all of hemp’s fiber applications. It seemed that while hemp fiber has been available for many years, no one had ever attempted to decorticate and create textile grade fiber from cannabis stalks.
Adam then added a set of rules to guide his next steps: The solution needed to be eco-friendly, chemical, scalable, and cheap. It had to effectively decorticate any cultivar of cannabis waste stalks, as well as degum, soften, and whiten the resultant fiber as well as produce clean, cellulose hurd.
With these rules to guide his process along with a healthy dose of “grit”, by mid-2015, Adam – with no formal education in chemical engineering - invented the eco-friendly chemical process that formed 9Fiber’s foundation.
Since then, 9Fiber’s chemistry has been proven to work on all varietals of cannabis, CBD hemp and hemp grown for fiber. In collaboration with its partners, 9Fiber has gone on to develop several end products using it's cellulose and fibrous sustainable materials. Today, 9Fiber is a nationally recognized leader in the industrial fiber sector of the hemp industry as well as a recognized voice for sustainable waste recycling solutions for the cannabis and CBD hemp industries.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
ADIN ALAI
CEO
Adin Alai is the CEO and founder of 9Fiber, Inc. – 9Fiber is a US based agro tech company, using proprietary technology to eliminate toxic chemicals and inefficiencies in the hemp industry. Through innovations in cellulose and fiber derivative processing, 9Fiber technology drives circular economies through waste diversion in the auto, plastics, paper, composite, semi-conductor, non-wovens, medical absorbents, construction and textile industries.
Adin serves on Recycle Colorado’s Cannabis Sustainability Council, is a member of the Marijuana Industry Group in Colorado and Maryland’s Industrial Hemp Coalition. He was a critical component in passage of SB18-187 in Colorado. Adin is nationally recognized as leading voice in the industrial hemp sector at economic development forums, the Future Harvest symposium at University of Maryland, the Social Enterprise Conference at the Harvard Business School, and state recycling summits.
JEFF FRASCO
CFO
Jeff Frasco serves as 9Fiber’s CFO. He brings over 15 years of executive level finance, financial forecasting, and venture financing experience to team. Most recently, Jeff served as the CFO at AscendOne Corporation – the leading consumer debt financing company in the US. Highlights include: developed package and forecasts that led to Reg D private placement for $1.6M in capital, enacted company-wide cost reductions, created leaner inventory management guidelines on sales and supplier lead times, and created risk-based modeling for new product lines exceeding $50M. Jeff earned a BA in Economics with a certificate in Finance from Princeton University and an MBA, with a concentration in Economics, from University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business.
MR. KEITH MERIEDETH
COO
Mr. Keith Meriedeth is Founder and CEO of Formula M Consultants, Inc. in Denver, CO. Experienced in building synergistic partnerships, he serves collaterally as COO of 9FIber LLC, Director of Strategic Business for Advantech Inc., and Founding Partner of Denver Biosciences LLC. Keith has an extraordinary mechanical and bio-medical engineering background with Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing skills that he has deployed in large and small companies alike. Worldly traveled, he has led technical sales and marketing teams to deliver record profits for Fortune 500 companies.
As a turnaround expert, Keith has consulted with various high-tech start-ups, helping to strengthen management and to restructure organizations to improve their market reach and brand equity, in particular by identifying and securing new, sustainable businesses accretive to earnings. His experience includes executive management roles in rapidly growing global companies, such as CEO and President of Rockwool’s Lapinus Fibres North America Division.
Mr. Meriedeth served as Global Director of Supply Chain and Supplier Development for BAE Systems USA, then the second largest defense contractor in the world, where he materially improved on-time and on-budget delivery of wheeled vehicles and collateral equipment in order to support U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, while improving BAE’s profitability.
SERGEY GUREVICH
CHEMICAL ENGINEER/SR. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST
Sergey Gurevich has over 20 years of combined experience in renewable energy project management and leading cross-functional teams. He is listed as an inventor for over a dozen patents in catalyst transalkylation, xylene isomerization, ethylbenzene conversion and apparatus particulate delivery systems.
Sergey has extensive expertise in catalyst, absorbent and fine chemical development. Sergey has an extensive track record with R&D manufacturing scale-up projects. He’s consulted for several start-up companies and established companies such as Mel Chemistry, Biosciences Services, and Amyris Inc.
As an Associate Director at Greenline Industries, Sergey developed a new product patent US 8,314, 045 for solid acid catalyst on mineral base and managed multiple projects, QA principles development and provided R&D support. He also previously served a Product Development Specialist at UOP where he project managed I-300, TA-6, TA-5 and TA-4 technology delivery teams. Sergey is a Six Sigma Black Belt and an Operational Excellence Master. Hi is tri-lingual in English, Turkish and Russian with over a decade of global business travel.
ZEV PAISS
VP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Zev began his involvement with hemp in late 2012 shortly after Colorado became the first state to fully allow farmers to grow this versatile crop. He created and was the founding Executive Director of the National Hemp Association, from 2013 to the end of 2016. As a result of his work with farmers, manufacturers of extraction equipment, lab owners, entrepreneurs, and buyers of hemp products, he has developed long-standing relationships with many of the major hemp players in the U.S. He actively consults with a range of farmers, technology companies, and organizations as an active advisor to the Agricultural Claims Association, a hemp Subject Matter Expert to the Family Farm Group and an Advisor to the Texas Hemp Harvesters Association.
In 2017, he created the Hemp Marketplace, which has grown to become the largest and most active hemp marketplace in the world. Zev also founded Herb-a-lites, a wholesale and retail brand for raw hemp products such as flower, pre-rolls, hemp tea, and seasonings. He is the Chief Operating Officer of Abraham Paiss & Associates, Inc., which focuses on building a sustainable U.S. hemp supply chain.
JOSHUA ROCKWELL
ROCKWELL PROCESS CONSULTING
PROCESS ENGINEER
Joshua Rockwell owns his own process consulting firm based out of Long Beach, CA. Rockwell Process Consulting has been certified Green by the California Green Business Network. He is a chemical engineer from the University of New Hampshire. He also is currently the Director of Operations of Datumix, an Artificial Intelligence company. He has worked in technical sales, process engineering, and managed cross functional teams as a production and plant manager.
He’s worked in several companies in the Fortune 100, 500, and 1000. His experience covers heavy industry, light industry, and commercial businesses. He has set production and quality records at most locations throughout his career and led capital projects up to $40MM. Collectively he has sustainably improved the bottom line of the companies in his career $9 Billion.
He has led publicly traded companies through bronze, silver and gold Lean Manufacturing certifications. His people first approach leaves a lasting positive impact on the teams he works with.
