Iniobong Afia earned his Master of Science degree from the renowned University of Wisconsin – Madison and draws upon more than fifteen years of leadership experience as a microbiologist, analytical chemist, and lab director in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and cannabis industries. He has worked with some of the top biotech companies in the world including Abbott Labs, EMD Serono/Merck, Invitrogen Corporation, and ProCaps Laboratories. Ini joined the cannabis industry, as a Lab Director in Las Vegas, NV in late 2014, and was instrumental in setting up the lab from the ground up, including instrument installations, developing analytical methods, validation, writing Standard Operating Procedures, and Track-and-Trace implementation. As the first state to institute extensive and rigorous analytical testing on cannabis to include pesticides, microbials, potency, terpenes, heavy metals, solvents, and mycotoxins, Nevada allowed for the wealth of experience that Ini has garnered in the cannabis analytical space. Ini’s initial work led to the successful method validation of mycotoxins on cannabis in collaboration with Romer Labs, along with extensive involvement in the method development processes of major analytical instrument manufacturers. Ini’s notable work in the cannabis industry has led to a recent publication in the Natural Products Chemistry & Research journal titled Terpenoid Chemoprofiles Distinguish Drug-type Cannabis sativa L. Cultivars in Nevada, among other upcoming publications. Through his leadership in the laboratory, Ini led CannaSafe to being the #1 accredited cannabis lab in California with over 150 employees and the greatest market-share holder in the space. As the Scientific and Technical Director of CannaSafe, Ini constantly worked to develop and validate methodology used in assays that directly impact consumer safety, including the analysis of heavy metal contaminants from vaporizer smoke and methods to identify intoxicants in illicit products, among others. Ini is also a member of the ASTM D37 Technical Committee on Cannabis and a Scientific Committee member of the Emerald Conference.

Currently, as President of Cannsultation, a boutique analytical consulting firm, Ini travels the US helping build, train, and validate analytical laboratories. He also educates the cannabis and scientific community on best practices, business advice, current events, instrumentation, and much more on his YouTube Channel (@CannabisConversations).