Meet our leadership team

Aaron Rasty

Founder & CEO

The best indicator of future success is past performance. Aaron is one of the most successful entrepreneurs over the last twenty years, achieving extraordinary growth in start-ups involved in heavily regulated industries. His recent accomplishments include:

Co-Founder and COO of BlueStar Energy (IL):

  • Grew revenue from $0.4mm to $250M
  • Recognized as the #2 fastest-growing privately held company in US by Entrepreneur Magazine® (out of 21 million businesses)
  • BlueStar debuts on Inc Magazine’s 500 List® at #13 overall and #2 in Energy. BlueStar was also a 5-time consecutive honoree on Inc. Magazine’s 5000 list®
  • Crain’s Chicago Business honors Aaron Rasty as 40 Under 40® inductee
  • Crain’s Chicago Business Fast Fifty® recognizes BlueStar Energy as the #1 fastest-growing privately held company in IL and recognizes BlueStar Energy as one of Chicago’s Largest Privately-Held Companies
  • BlueStar energy is successfully sold to American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), a $45B publicly traded utility.

Investor and Board Member of Rabbit Hole Spirits (KY):

  • Following significant Round A investment, Rabbit Hole Spirits nominated Aaron Rasty as a board member
  • Rabbit Hole builds state of the art distillery and expands from Kentucky to 18 states
  • Rabbit Hole Spirits is successfully sold to Pernod Ricard, second largest provider of wine and spirits globally ($10B in revenue)

Nathan Kelly

Chief Cultivation Officer

Nathan is a nationally recognized cultivation expert who has over 12 years of experience scaling operations in numerous states in the US’s regulated cannabis market.

Nathan was the former Chief Operating Officer of a cannabis operator overseeing cultivation and processing of a 100K sq ft facility outputting award-winning cultivars. He has consulted on grows nationally in cannabis and hemp.

Kristi Kelly

Chief Strategy Officer

Kristi has been recognized as one of the Most Powerful Women in cannabis, winning and operating licenses across the US with an impeccable compliance record.


She was Executive Director of Colorado’s impactful trade association for licensed cannabis businesses, Marijuana Industry Group (MIG) and a top 100 political cannabis influencer.

Jon Casadont

Chief Legal Officer

Jon has specialized in advising entrepreneurial, privately-held growth companies for most of his 22 years of practice.


He has held top leadership positions within multiple businesses, in industries as diverse as retail electricity supply and Wagyu cattle.