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In Episode 67 of the Legacies Podcast, host Tom Ritchie sit down with Margaret Brodie, CEO of Rubicon Organics (joined by Director of Cultivation Mikky Rahmberg). Margaret details the corporate and financial strategy of running a publicly traded premium cannabis company, highlighting the importance of building long-term brands with 30-year shelf life over short-term sales spikes. She discusses the integration of legacy plant knowledge with structured CPG business practices, the science of living soil in their 125,000-square-foot hybrid greenhouse, and the necessity of premium quality over basic organic labels. The conversation also details Rubicon’s strict internal quality controls, including a blind R&D sensory tasting panel and root-cause customer complaint analysis, retail budtender advocacy, and their recent acquisition of the Canimed/Canna Farms facility in Hope, BC.
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome to Legacies, everyone! I’m joined this week by Margaret Brodie and Mikky Rahmberg of Rubicon Organics. Margaret, Mikky, thanks for joining Legacies. This has been a long time in the making!
Margaret Brodie Says: It really has been, Tom! We’ve been talking about coming on for quite a while, and I said the only way I was sitting down for this interview is if Mikky joined me.
Tom Ritchie Says: We are thrilled to have both of you. Mikky is the mastermind behind the genetics, and everyone knows I’m an absolute genetics freak. Before we dive deep, a quick reminder that Legacies is powered by AVEO, leaders in sustainable vape hardware. Margaret, you have a buttoned-up CPA background, yet you’re leading one of Canada’s most respected craft cannabis producers. Take us through your journey to Rubicon.
Margaret Brodie Says: Mikky and I took polar opposite paths to arrive at the exact same place, which is pretty special. I was born and raised in British Columbia and rowed crew competitively for eight years through high school and university. I completed my CPA, worked in London for seven years, and returned to Canada. In 2015, a mutual friend and major shareholder suggested I meet Jesse McConnell.
Margaret Brodie Says: Adult-use was still illegal, medical cannabis was tightly regulated, and societal stigma was pervasive. But after meeting Jesse, I immediately saw how my financial and operational background could help build a proud BC institution. I grew up in the 80s during the War on Drugs, but transitioning into cannabis made me an impassioned sector advocate. Mikky jokes that I’m ‘the suit,’ but we’re living the dream building world-class cannabis in our own backyard.
Mikky Rahmberg Says: I’ve been in the legacy cannabis game for over 25 years. When my first child was born right as federal legalization appeared on the horizon, I started taking meetings with prospective licensed producers. Every executive pitched the exact same arrogant story: ‘We’re crushing it, we have it all figured out.’ I could see right through the corporate hype.
Mikky Rahmberg Says: When I met with Rubicon, they were the only team with the humility to say: ‘We know where we want to go, we want to get better, and we need your help to get there.’ That single sentence earned my commitment. Initially, I promised myself I’d stay for one year just to qualify for a residential mortgage under my own name! But I fell in love with the team, the culture, and the operational challenge. Cannabis is never a 9-to-5 job; it demands 365 days of relentless dedication.
Margaret Brodie Says: In our early days, like many companies, we had that tension between legacy operators and corporate CPG minds. On my second day, our founder Jesse McConnell pulled me aside after I made an offhand comment about the illicit market. He said, ‘Never disrespect the legacy market—those are our patients, our culture, and the pioneers who built the ground we stand on.’ That lesson stayed with me forever.
Margaret Brodie Says: Mikky possesses a depth of plant knowledge that no textbook can replicate. At the executive table, we have intense, passionate debates. If Mikky says a crop doesn’t meet sensory standards, we don’t bottle it under our flagship brands. Quality and process always supersede short-term margin.
Tom Ritchie Says: Margaret, how has the overarching vision for Rubicon evolved since you took over as CEO?
Margaret Brodie Says: Jesse originally envisioned Rubicon as Canada’s organic and premium leader. Today, our mantra is ‘Elevating Your Day.’ Every consumer touchpoint—whether a medical patient managing chronic pain or an adult-use customer unwinding on a Friday—must deliver an exceptional, consistent experience. We aren’t interested in trading bulk hockey bags of wholesale weed; we are building trusted, generational brands like Simply Bare Organic and 1964 Supply Co. that will endure for thirty years.
Mikky Rahmberg Says: True brand equity starts with uncompromising genetics. Too many commercial producers select cultivars based solely on powdery mildew resistance or commercial yield per square foot. We hunt exclusively for undeniable fire, exquisite terpene profiles, and authentic bag appeal. We work with legendary breeders like Gastown Dave who have trusted us to bring their life’s work into the regulated market.
Margaret Brodie Says: We recently acquired the historic Canna Farms facility in Hope, BC—the very first federally licensed cultivation facility in the province. While our 125,000-square-foot hybrid greenhouse in Delta is our spiritual home for certified organic living soil, the indoor setup in Hope allows Mikky to cultivate vintage genetics that require traditional indoor environmental control.
Mikky Rahmberg Says: Our 1964 brand is dedicated to heritage cultivars. Old-school legacy strains were selected and bred under artificial indoor lighting; when you force them into a greenhouse, they don’t always express their true potential. We run an extensive genetic trial program, commercializing less than 2% of the cultivars we test. That rigorous selectivity is why our products stand out in a market drowning in homogeneous greenhouse flower.
Tom Ritchie Says: While the broader market chased inflated THC numbers, discount ounces, and speculative export deals, Rubicon stayed focused on craft quality. How do you resist market hype as a publicly traded company?
Margaret Brodie Says: Our board comprises seasoned operators who have lived through macroeconomic cycles across CPG and natural resources. When management aligned on building premium brands, our directors reminded us: ‘You aren’t commodity traders flipping hockey bags of weed.’ We view ourselves as the Arc’teryx of cannabis—proudly rooted in British Columbia, uncompromising in technical execution, and disciplined enough to stay in our lane.
Tom Ritchie Says: What operational metrics govern your day-to-day decisions?
Mikky Rahmberg Says: Quality is our first, middle, and last metric. My philosophy is that we are always 70% of the way to perfection and constantly pushing toward 100%, knowing nature never truly lets you get there. In the early days, we didn’t even have an internal R&D license—we had to sell product through the provincial board and buy it back from retail stores just to evaluate our cure!
Mikky Rahmberg Says: Today, our quality department conducts weekly blind sensory tasting panels with up to ten internal evaluators grading every harvest batch. If a lot falls short of our sensory benchmarks, it gets downgraded to alternative processing. Protecting our brand equity means sacrificing quick short-term cash to guarantee long-term consumer trust.
Margaret Brodie Says: We also conduct monthly root-cause analyses on every single consumer complaint. If pre-roll complaints reach 20 per 100,000 units, we immediately re-engineer grind density and paper tension. We reinvest capital directly into our people and our living soil, avoiding corporate vanity.
Tom Ritchie Says: Many commercial growers run monocultures with a single strain across an entire facility. How does Rubicon handle greenhouse cultivation?
Mikky Rahmberg Says: Our secret lies in the living soil. We feed the soil microbiome rather than force-feeding synthetic chemical salts to bare roots. In our 125,000-square-foot facility, we practice what we call ‘rainbow cropping.’ Rather than planting an entire flower bay with a single cultivar, we grow six to twelve distinct genetics side-by-side—two rows of White Rainbow, two rows of Blue Dream, two rows of Froot Loops, and two rows of Creek Congo.
Margaret Brodie Says: Rainbow cropping is agriculturally challenging because different genetics demand varying microclimates and nutrient uptake rates. But it guarantees that our retail partners receive a continuous stream of fresh, diverse, small-batch harvests rather than warehouse gluts of aged flower.
Tom Ritchie Says: There’s a pervasive online narrative claiming retail budtenders earn minimum wage and therefore cannot afford or recommend premium organic cannabis. What is your perspective?
Margaret Brodie Says: That assumption completely misjudges budtenders. Budtenders are authentic cannabis connoisseurs. They are our frontline brand ambassadors, and winning the KIND Magazine Awards voted by budtenders proves their loyalty. Even when a specific terpene profile isn’t their personal preference, they respect the craft and clean burn of certified organic living soil.
Tom Ritchie Says: It’s like my lifelong aspiration to own a Porsche 911 Turbo. Even if I don’t park one in my driveway every day, I deeply respect the engineering and craftsmanship. When consumers want to treat themselves to an elevated experience, they choose Simply Bare.
Mikky Rahmberg Says: Exactly. We’ve met passionate customers who proudly shared photos of their personal stashes containing dozens of glass jars of Gastown Dave’s Pink Drip. Whether a customer buys a single pre-roll once a year for a special concert or smokes Simply Bare daily, the experience must be transcendent.
Margaret Brodie Says: Creek Congo and Blue Dream were the very first strains we cultivated in Delta. Blue Dream remains our longest-running and highest-selling SKU of all time, testing consistently at 18% THC. It completely disproves the industry myth that flower must test at 35% THC to succeed commercially.
Mikky Rahmberg Says: Creek Congo is a pure landrace sativa with notoriously low agricultural yields. Commercial MBAs would kill that plant immediately. But our consumers and budtenders begged us to bring it back. We ran a dedicated small-batch drop in BC that sold out instantly. A couple of weeks ago, Margaret found a 2023 Lime Mojito pre-roll in her house—it burned cleanly with vibrant citrus terpenes, proving that living soil and cold-cure preservation maintain freshness for years.
Tom Ritchie Says: How do you navigate genetic trends without falling into the trap of chasing hype names?
Mikky Rahmberg Says: When we hunt genetics, we test blind by number so personal bias doesn’t interfere. We evaluate terpene profiles, trichome density, and effect. If the market is buzzing about fruity-gas strains like Gelato, we trial twenty distinct fruity-gas seedlines to find the ultimate greenhouse expression rather than chasing an over-hyped clone name.
Tom Ritchie Says: It drives me crazy seeing operators harvest mediocre crops, realize the market isn’t buying, and re-label the jar with whatever strain name is trending that week!
Mikky Rahmberg Says: In Canada, that practice was born out of regulatory bottlenecks. Because Health Canada restricted genetic imports, dozens of licensed producers purchased clones from the exact same nursery. When provincial boards refused to list another duplicate SKU, desperate operators renamed unsold inventory to survive. At Rubicon, every genetic we launch is an exclusive cut held directly through breeder partnerships. Chasing hype names homogenizes the market and destroys genetic biodiversity.
Margaret Brodie Says: The Canadian sector crossed an enormous structural threshold this year: pre-rolls officially surpassed dried flower as the largest sales category in the country. That demonstrates consumer demand for convenience, consistency, and trusted brand execution. We also launched our first premium All-In-One vaporizers, engineered to deliver optimized voltage curves for solventless live rosin.
Margaret Brodie Says: At the same time, the Ontario Cannabis Store is rationalizing retail menus, trimming total SKUs from roughly 5,200 down to 4,500. The shelf has been built. If an LP lost their listing over the past eighteen months, the cost of re-entering the channel is prohibitive. Canada’s cannabis industry generates more national GDP than the dairy sector, and it’s time regulators and politicians recognize our economic weight.
Tom Ritchie Says: Where do you see Rubicon Organics and British Columbia cannabis heading over the next five to ten years?
Mikky Rahmberg Says: I want Rubicon to be the undisputed leader in genetics. More importantly, I want to restore the global reputation of BC Bud. Decades ago, mentioning British Columbia anywhere in the world instantly commanded respect for connoisseur quality. As international markets commoditize mid-tier flower, premium craft will command global export value, exactly like Grand Cru wines from Bordeaux.
Margaret Brodie Says: Winning on the global stage requires the Canadian industry to abandon internal squabbling and unite around enforceable quality standards. We must stay focused on where we have a right to win, build enduring brands, and lead the international cannabis renaissance.
Tom Ritchie Says: Before we sign off, Margaret and Mikky, what are your current personal daily product recommendations?
Margaret Brodie Says: While Froot Loops edibles are my staple, my absolute go-to right now is our 1964 Comatose All-In-One vape. As an executive with an always-on brain, Comatose gently downshifts my nervous system at the end of a demanding day.
Mikky Rahmberg Says: For me, it’s Sunset Runtz and Lemon Loops from Gastown Dave under Simply Bare. Runtz thrives in our Delta greenhouse, expressing mouthwatering candy-gas terpenes that represent the pinnacle of BC living soil cultivation.
Tom Ritchie Says: Margaret, Mikky—your commitment to living soil, authentic genetic stewardship, and sustainable business discipline is an absolute inspiration. Thank you for joining us on Legacies!
Margaret Brodie Says: Thank you, Tom! We appreciate everything you do for the industry.
Mikky Rahmberg Says: Thanks, Tom. It’s been an honor!
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Chief Executive Officer
Margaret Brodie is a CPA, ex-rower, and Chief Executive Officer of Rubicon Organics.
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Licensed Producer
Rubicon Organics Inc. (TSXV: ROMJ, OTCQX: ROMJF) is a leading Canadian licensed producer specializing in certified organic, premium cannabis products....
Learn More About Partner ↗CEO Margaret Brodie explains that Rubicon is focused on building long-term, trusted brands (like Simply Bare Organic and 1964 Supply Co.) with 30-year staying power, rather than chasing short-term volume trends.
Margaret Brodie emphasizes that organic certification alone does not guarantee a premium product. To succeed, organic flower must meet the highest standards of taste, consistency, terpene profile, and overall consumer experience.
Rubicon employs a strict quality control system, including an R&D-licensed blind sensory tasting panel that grades every batch, combined with root-cause analysis tracking customer complaints to drive continuous improvements.
