Shanel Lindsay

Shanel Lindsay is an attorney, entrepreneur, and cannabis advocate.

She is the founder and president of Ardent LLC, a Boston-based biotech company that develops safe, effective and convenient products for the cannabis industry. A drafter Massachusetts’ adult use cannabis law, founding member and co-chair of the Northeast Cannabis Coalition, Massachusetts Patients Advocacy Alliance advisory board member and well-known advocate for cannabis legalization on the east coast and beyond, Shanel is dedicated to improving public understanding of cannabis’ benefits and eliminating the stigma surrounding its use.

Shanel graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Northeastern University School of Law and began her career as a judicial law clerk for the Massachusetts Superior Court. She then joined the Boston law firm of Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, serving as a civil litigator for Fortune 500 companies before becoming Employment Counsel and Director of Human Resources for the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission. For over 15 years, Shanel has used cannabis medicinally as an alternative to pharmaceuticals.

Leveraging a decade of expertise extracting, preparing, and applying cannabis compounds, Shanel founded Ardent in 2013. Among patients and within the commercial industry, utilizing the beneficial compounds of cannabis involves significant uncertainty and expense. Based on breakthrough research into the underlying process of decarboxylation, Ardent’s technology fully activates THC with no degradation or loss. Precision decarboxylation allows patients and dispensaries create accurately dosed cannabis therapies at a fraction of the cost.