Heidi Whitman Welcomed as Managing Director for Prohibition Partners New Growth Marketing Platform PPX

Prohibition Partners pairs a decade of cannabis market infrastructure with the international network of PPX's new Managing Director.

LONDON, Oct. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Prohibition Partners is pleased to announce that Heidi Whitman has joined the company as Managing Director of PPX, a new strategic pillar from the organisation that has tracked, analysed and shaped the global cannabis industry for a decade.

PPX will bring Prohibition Partners' existing clients, some of whom it has worked with since 2017, together with Whitman's extensive international network of regulators, financiers and formulators.

In turn, the clients she brings across from her own practice gain the reach of the largest cannabis B2B network in the world from across Prohibition Partners' portfolio, including flagship industry events and agenda-setting publications like Cannabis Europa, Cannabis Health, Mind Forward, and Business of Cannabis. 

"PPX is an advisory and media pillar under Prohibition Partners," Whitman said. "With this combination, clients will have access to the full suite of Prohibition Partners' brands and services, the intelligence, the data, the media, the journalism, and the events, alongside my trusted international curated network of decision makers. The scope and quality of what we're now able to offer clients simply cannot be found anywhere else in the industry."

The PPX pillar will provide expanded holistic services for operators, spanning proprietary market intelligence, direct introductions to investors and operators, visibility through its expansive media network, and strategic guidance informed by regulatory insight across every major market.

Whitman has spent more than a decade in the global cannabis industry, cultivating a network of trusted and influential industry figures spread across the UK, the EU and Latin America. Across three independent business ventures, a company exit, and years of independent advisory work, this network has evolved into an invaluable platform, one that will now be coming to Prohibition Partners.

People 'who have already been speaking to me and engaged with me' will continue with her inside PPX, she emphasised. "Nothing has changed…. If my name's attached to it, it needs to be good people, my good people network, trying to do the right thing."

The Trust Business

With Prohibition Partners' team of some of the industry's most respected and talented individuals under her leadership at PPX, Whitman aims to bring an unrivalled suite of services to her clientele.

The teams' expertise will not only be able to identify the brightest opportunities the sector has to offer for each individual business, but the relationships built over decades of combined industry presence can open the door for them to walk through.

Whitman's vision is simple: grow the value of our clientele, and the value of the company follows. "Our clients access within PPX advisory, a network of some of the most respected and talented individuals in the space, plus full access to the Prohibition Partners pillars across advisory and media," she says.

"That means validating their strategic growth plans and staying on the leading edge of where the industry is going. It's a combination no other advisory can match, and we do it with equality built in throughout."

Underpinning this network is a focus on compliance and trust. Whitman names Cannavigia, a client of PPX and a cannabis traceability and compliance software provider, as one of her existing clients and says the same discipline runs through everything she plans to bring to PPX.

"Compliance is going to be key to everything I do. Ethics, compliance, honesty and trust, those are all the things we absolutely need."

For Whitmann, who has enjoyed a long and varied career in the cannabis industry, the move also marks a shift from operating alone.

"There's a team behind me now. I've been on my own for some time. Now I have in-house all the intelligence and all the other media opportunities and branding and marketing tools. That's something I would have had to outsource before, but it can be all wrapped up into one package now."

Based between the UK and continental Europe, with an active network in Latin America and North America, she believes PPX is perfectly positioned to capitalise on the anticipated interest in the UK as a European base as the US moves through federal rescheduling.

"Being on the leading edge means you're able to pivot," she says. "You're able to understand the importance of having an adviser on the ground if you're not in this country."

Her framing of the opportunity is unapologetically ambitious: "It's time to raise standards in business and operations. We have to look at this as a renaissance. Business models are shifting, and those who are the loudest do not always harness best practices. We are here to shine a light on excellence in practice and bring those to the forefront at whatever stage their business is currently sitting. Everyone deserves to participate when ethics, morals and practice in operations support the industry and community which it serves."

"PPX opens the door to the full power of the Prohibition Partners pillars, connecting global clients with the resources and momentum they need for their next phase of growth."

She is equally insistent that the offer isn't only for the largest operators: "I'm here for all stages of business, for all opportunities, working with everyone based on their budgets and their growth plans."

Heidi's appointment closes a gap in our offering," said Stephen Murphy, Founder and CEO of Prohibition Partners. "Since 2017, we have built the intelligence, the media reach and the events infrastructure that operators rely on. What Heidi brings is the relationships that turn that infrastructure into outcomes: introductions to regulators, investors and formulators, built over more than a decade in the market.

"Prohibition Partners' unique network and knowledge means clients no longer need to assemble data, advisory, media and access separately. It is now one service, with one point of contact."

Two Networks, One Platform

Whitman's advisory career has run alongside a second, more personal project. In 2023, on the sidelines of Prohibition Partners' own Cannabis Europa conference, she co-founded EmpowHer Cannabis Society with Rebecca Allan-Tapp after finding herself one of few women in the room.

EmpowHer has since grown into a WhatsApp network spanning more than 40 countries and a formally registered association in Berlin. In November 2024, Whitman won the Cannabis Industry Council's Contribution to Social Impact award for the initiative at the body's inaugural awards dinner.

"For 2027, my goal is to lead PPX clients into their next phase across regional, emerging and international markets, and to convene a female health symposium that fills an economically game-changing gap for our industry."

For companies, entrepreneurs or even the cannabis industry curious, PPX's offering is simple – Whitman's relationships provide the access; the Prohibition Partners platform provides the scale. Whitman's relationships provide the access, Prohibition Partners platform provides the scale.

Shawna Seldon, 1-917-971-7852, [email protected]

SOURCE Heidi Whitman; Prohibition Partners