Two more higher-ups let go from NY’s Office of Cannabis Management
Leadership Shakeup at New York's Office of Cannabis Management Amid State Review.
Two people in chief positions at New York’s Office of Cannabis Management were let go from their jobs last week as part of an ongoing shakeup at the beleaguered regulatory agency.
The OCM’s chief diversity officer and manager of executive operations, Mary Adelaja, left on June 13, as did the OCM’s chief of staff and counsel, Nicole Triplett – who had only been with the office since March.
Both Adelaja and Triplett did not respond to interview requests, but former OCM spokesperson Aaron Ghitelman – who’d been in touch with both staffers – told NY Cannabis Insider the two did not go willingly.
“They were asked to leave by the new acting executive director and the governor’s office,” said Ghitelman, who left the OCM in March. Ghitelman added that it wasn’t out of the ordinary to see departures like this during a top-to-bottom rehaul of an agency.
Prompted by lawsuits, industry complaints and a glacial rollout of the state’s legal cannabis marketplace, Gov. Kathy Hochul had ordered an assessment of the OCM in March, which was led by Office of General Services Commissioner Jeanette Moy.
Moy’s assessment found inefficiencies and mismanagement at the OCM, along with an unclear hierarchy and other “deep-seeded issues,” Hochul said.
As a result, the governor announced that Chris Alexander, her appointee who led the agency since 2021, would not continue after his term ends in September.
Alexander promptly submitted his two-week notice and Hochul tapped Felicia A. B. Reid as the acting executive director on June 10.
Adelaja and Triplett were let go three days later.
Adelaja was responsible for the OCM’s strategic plan for diversity and inclusion and its integration into the agency’s overall social equity plan. A former staffer at the Department of Homeland Security, she was also the OCM’s representative on the state’s Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Council and had been with the office since its inception in late 2021.
Triplett, according to her bio, worked alongside Alexander and managed agency-wide strategic alignment. She had previously worked at Meta, the ACLU, and the U.S. Congress House Judiciary Committee.
