Chang Yi

CEO & Chief Legal Officer

Smoakland New York

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Chief Legal Officer of Smoakland Group and CEO of Smokeland New York. Chang served on the cannabis regulatory commission in Oakland, California as a commisioner between 2016 and 2019 and chaired the cannabis regulatory commission for 2 years. He helped revise the first ever, cannabis equity program developed in Oakland, California.

Prior to Cannabis, Chang worked as commercial counsel for California Closets, with retail operations across four countries and 38 states, and manufacturing operations in Arizona and Michigan.

Prior to California Closets, Chang served as commercial counsel for the Institute for OneWorld Health (iOWH), now part of PATH Global as its drug development wing. At iOWH, he supported clinical trials in India, Bangladesh and Nepal and coordinated compliance with the WHO and the India Ministry of Health. Furthermore, Chang crafted unique "open source" agreements for reverse patent licensing with many multi-national pharmaceutical companies like Abbott Laboratories, Sanofi Aventis, Genentech, and others.