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Women of Distinction

wanted to leverage my deep at the Chopra Center. You can left the tech world to deal with and hemp. The year was 2016, and
understanding of the analytics imagine which route she selected! massive trauma in our lives. But Pelin hadn’t yet heard about the
market as well as my ability to ex- Looking back, the rapid improve- that break also gave me the time to now wildly popular supplement.
ecute on a winning go-to-market ments in her wellbeing and quality really reflect on what I wanted to “Andy told us that CBD was
strategy. I hit the ground running of life upon adopting the recom- do going forward. And one thing delivering absolutely remarkable
by bringing on a highly experi- mendations of the Chopra Center that came through loud and clear improvements for his son Max,
enced senior management team MDs would serve as a key turning was that I had spent my career ex- who was born with cerebral palsy
and positioning the company as point in Pelin’s life and career. celling around the “how” aspect of and started to tell us about its
a leader in the emerging market- The health issues in Pelin’s what I did: how I took care of my anxiolytic and anti-inflammatory
ing analytics space. As CEO of a family escalated when her hus- customers, my shareholders, my benefits. Given the tremendous
start-up, you end up being a chief band Scott, who is the co-founder employees, how I lead companies, pain Scott was experiencing
everything officer, spanning sales, and CEO of Nanovision, nearly how I engaged with people. But if due to his open-heart surgeries
marketing, finance, R&D and cus- died of a massive aortic rupture I were honest with myself, I didn’t and the issues with the plethora
tomer support. I was grateful to of prescribed pain medication,
have the respect of the engineers we thought we’d try some CBD
and often sat down with them to transdermal patches to see how
discuss the business optimization they assisted with the pain…
scenarios they were developing they appeared to really work,
for various major clients. I also and I was intrigued. When Andy
enjoyed spending time closing and I started asking our friends
deals with major customers and and colleagues about CBD well
then ensuring we could indeed before it was as popular as it is
meet their specific requirements.” today, we found out many were
Anametrix received major already using CBD for a variety
industry accolades, including for of conditions. Not just epilepsy,
best business intelligence (BI) which I know many have now
and big data solution, and was heard about, but really everything
acquired by Silicon Valley firm from brain tumors to Parkinson’s
Ensighten in 2014. For the next and Alzheimer’s, autism to sleep,
18 months, Pelin led the technical and everyday chronic pain. The
and cultural integration between breadth of the potential benefits
the two companies as well as the was honestly astounding to me!
expanded corporate rebranding Just as interesting—especially
and positioning as Ensighten’s given my analytics background—
Chief Strategy Officer. was how a lot of others indicated
While it’s clearly in Pelin’s and dissection in 2015. “We ended have a solid “why”, a purpose that CBD did not benefit them.
DNA to attract and embrace new up having to airlift him to a San that I was truly passionate about They said, ‘Yeah, I tried CBD, I
challenges, she felt the exhaustion Diego hospital for what turned out behind it all.” heard about all the hype, and it
as her new role involved even to be an 11-hour lifesaving open Stepping back from work to doesn’t work for me at all.’ So, we
longer hours with weekly trips to heart surgery. Scott was in a coma take a long, hard look at her life wanted to get to the bottom of
Silicon Valley. “I felt extremely for days following the invasive was an invigorating process for how and why CBD may provide
tired all the time, but assumed procedure, and things were touch Pelin. “I had spent years devel- these diverse health benefits and
it came with the territory of and go for quite some time. Given oping great software products why it worked for some people
balancing family with the rigors of the extent of the damage to his that drive significant productivity and not for others. As we looked
corporate life. However, this time vascular system, he ended up hav- gains for corporations big and into the medical literature, we
was different as I could barely ing two more open heart surgeries small. And, there’s certainly a ton realized there was simply not a lot
pull myself out of bed and was before thankfully recovering fully.” of value in that. But after going of research from NIH [National
losing my signature joie de vivre. Watching the miracle of modern through a life changing experience Institutes for Health] or other
After numerous consultations medical technology unfold as like we did, I realized that was no sources primarily due to the
with MDs and osteopaths, I was doctors cooled her husband’s body longer enough for me. It was time Schedule 1 status of CBD and
finally diagnosed with adrenal and arrested blood flow entirely to to really think about what my cannabis.”
fatigue, a condition where one’s replace significant portions of his next step would be and seek that Based on what they saw, Pelin
adrenal glands can’t keep up with damaged thoracic aorta with syn- perfect intersection of my skills and Andy thought it was time to
the tremendous amount of daily thetic vessels was a transformative and my passions.” bring in private money and re-
stress we experience. Adrenals are experience for Pelin. Just as trans- It’s that kind of deep sources for much-needed research
designed to produce hormones formative was the realization that self-re-evaluation that drove funding and decided to co-found
such as cortisol and adrenaline the same medical technology was Pelin’s desire to make a major the Wholistic Research and Edu-
to enable us to deal with short woefully inadequate when it came shift from her illustrious career in cation Foundation. Their mission
term “fight or flight” situations. to addressing pain relief following big data and analytics to natural is to explore the health benefits
However, with long-term stress, these traumatic surgeries. medicine. People say setting in- of CBD-rich therapeutics with
our adrenal glands burn out from The break she took from her tentions opens your eyes to things clinical and scientific research
prolonged production of the stress tech career to focus on her family you may have otherwise missed and leverage this evidence-based
hormone cortisol – and adrenal during this health crisis, along – and that certainly proved to be data for education and advocacy.
fatigue sets in.” with key realizations about how the case for Pelin as well. When Their approach is what some call
Her primary physician of over she could make a difference in the Pelin and Scott’s long-term friend Venture Philanthropy, which is
20 years told Pelin she can either world of healthcare and wellness Andy Noorda visited to check up a model that goes far beyond
start antidepressants, or given her ended up serving as a launching on Scott, he also introduced them writing checks. They say they take
preference for natural medicine, point for another career for the to CBD, a non-psychoactive com- a deep, long-term view into what
consult with the Ayurvedic MDs ever entrepreneurial Pelin. “I pound found in both marijuana it means to invest in cutting-edge
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