Our Story

Ken is the founder and CEO of CSI, a defense contracting business providing technology and engineering services including information assurance, cyber security, software development, data center consolidation, network security, and system security. CSI grew from two employees and $64,000 in revenues to almost 120 employees and more than $8 million in sales in just 4 years. In 2012: Forbes Magazine named it the 4th fastest growing inner-city business. Ken is a native of Oklahoma and proud of it! Today he resides in Oklahoma City with his wife and two children.

Jef has been involved in the design, construction, commissioning and training of over 300 labs in 13 states. His background as a Product Manager/Project Engineer in the compressed gas and cryogenics industry kept him highly involved with the Biopharmaceutical, Food Processing and Healthcare industries. Because of Colorado’s early legalization of medical cannabis this work eventually began to be heavily involved with the cannabis industry. Initially the work was centered around cultivation of cannabis. Jef designed and developed the first large scale system to safely enrich large indoor cultivation spaces with Carbon Dioxide gas (CO2) in 2009. This system is still widely used and sold today and is the standard in the industry. As the industry grew, the work became more centered around processing. Jef has always been focused on working safely and efficiently. He continues to work with many federal agencies including FDA, DOE, USDA, USGS, NREL, OSHA and DOT as a Cryogenics and Compressed Gas engineer. He presently serves on four NFPA technical advisory boards and three ASTM Committees. His expertise led him to begin consulting for the cannabis/hemp industry in 2010 as a leading safety and process engineering consultant. Today Jef translates the knowledge and expertise gained from his 41 years of related industry experience directly into making 1440’s processing business best in class.

Mark has worked in the IT industry for over 20 years, the last 10 years in the government sector. He is PMP certified and prior MCP (Microsoft Certified Programmer.) In addition, he has obtained multiple Microsoft Partner certifications while under employment. He carries a wide range of skills in development, management, and back-office automation. He is a qualified SharePoint developer, .NET programmer, and SQL specialist. His skills shine in back-office operations, automation, and integration. He has implemented multiple ERP systems (Dynamics GP,NAV,JAMIS,Acumatica) and has in depth knowledge of true cost accounting. Although new to the manufacturing sector, almost all of the same principals apply in the government world. Job Costing, Forecasting, and Dashboards are critical, and play a daily role in Mark’s role as CIO. Mark has obtained multiple ISO 2015+, CMMI (Dev and SVC) Level III certifications, as well as FedRAMP and NIST 800-171 certifications which secure our technology and financial resources to the highest government standards. Mark has most recently worked with the 1mil to 30mil growth of small businesses to mid business levels. He is extremely familiar with bridging the older technologies with the current cloud infrastructure standard. Due to the wide range of skills, he is able to allocate almost any technical resource to meet the demand of the customer or requirement.

Sean has more than 17 years’ experience in the IT industry. He is an international speaker, panelist on security matters, has won and or placed in several Defcon competitions, has experience with Tribal Government, Tribal Gaming, Health Industry (HIPAA/HITECH Security Specialist) U.S. Federal contracting and consulting with agencies including DoD, NSA, and the US Marshall's service. Sean has been described by the hacking community as "leaving a litter of broken and/or shelled systems in his wake". Sean was previously the principal security consultant for NetSource Secure, a Denver-based firm with a strong presence in Oklahoma for multiple verticals. He is one of the founders of BlueAnt Security and the DC405 and is currently active in the Oklahoma hacking scene. Sean is the current world record holder for the longest FRID Hack, longest Wifi Shot, has 3D printed firearm smuggled through TSA and documented for FAA, and PCI QSA Signoff for 4 different; Level 1, Fortune 100 companies in one fiscal year.

Oliver’s background is in film, apparel and advertising. He started his own production company out of college, producing and directing commercials and music videos. He then went on to work for acclaimed writer/producer David Milch, involved in the creative and also overseeing production on multiple HBO series. In 2016, he founded Higgs, a cannabis lifestyle company that has garnered national acclaim.

Ben Migdal is a seasoned Cannabis business professional who has experience working on retail, cultivation, and processing projections in both medical and recreational markets. While living in Boulder, CO in 2014, Ben first entered the cannabis industry as a consultant for WeaveIQ (a cannabis POS software). In 2015, Ben joined Franklin Biosciences where he helped launch Lucky Edibles in addition to working on the company’s acquisition of cultivation and processing licenses and facilities in North Las Vegas, NV. In December of 2017, Mr. Migdal relocated to his home state of Michigan where he co-founded Humble Roots, a cannabis consulting and licensing company. During his time working on Humble Roots, Mr. Migdal successfully won several retail, cultivation, and processing licenses in municipalities with caps on the total number of licenses throughout the state. Humble Roots also inked several robust consulting agreements with multiple nationally recognized companies including as Ascend Wellness Holdings. In June of 2019, Ben joined Body and Mind Inc., a publicly traded cannabis holdings company with assets in California, Nevada, Ohio, and Arkansas. During his time at Body and Mind, Mr. Migdal successfully oversaw the launch of Body and Mind’s West Memphis, Arkansas dispensary, its San Diego Dispensary (dba ShowGrow per an acquisition agreement), and its new Type N manufacturing facility in Cathedral City. Mr. Migdal also successfully managed the transition of Body and Mind’s processing facility in Las Vegas from a co-location in the same facility as its cultivation operations to a new, 8,000sf flex space in which it currently operates.