MEET OUR TEAM
James Hancock – CEO and Board Member, HHM
Mr. Hancock has garnered recognition serving in numerous senior positions as a turnaround and merger and acquisition specialist throughout his 40-year career. He is presently serving as a Board Member of BRYN Resources, Inc (OTC:BRYN), name change to Excelsior Solutions Corporation. Mr. Hancock incorporated Healthy Harvest Mushrooms Inc. in August 2022 and became CEO and Board member.
He has been President, CEO, COO, and VP of Sales & Marketing within public and private companies in financial services, investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, telecommunications, and payment processing industries. Most recently, as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Global Payout, Inc., a publicly traded company on the OTC markets from 2010 to 2018, Hancock worked within the financial services industries as a program manager and payment processor for prepaid card programs, where he is most proud of launching nearly 40 nationally and internationally, custom-designed, prepaid debit card programs.
Hancock has a vast amount of knowledge of the public company industry and due to his experience and reputation, he has access to a network of top SEC attorneys, accounting firms, investment bankers, and qualified management teams. Besides being a creative, forward-thinker, Hancock also shares his lessons learned from the past which have proven to be most helpful to his clients.
Hancock earned a Juris Doctorate from California Western School of Law, San Diego, and a Bachelor of Business Admin from Southern Methodist University. He served in the U.S. Army holding the rank of E-5.
Robert Richardson Jr. – President and Shareholder, HHM
Mr. Richardson Jr. has spent most of his life in the mushroom industry, having grown up on a mushroom farm with an active role in the production of mushrooms, assisting the development of new mushroom products for different industries, including health products and cosmetics.
He has developed new protocols for the growing of several varieties of mushrooms, as well as has produced almost every commercial variety of mushroom available.
Robert Richardson has worked for many years developing the mushroom industry providing teaching and education to the public through tours, interactive media, and business-to-business sales creating a need for otherwise unknown products in the culinary, food manufacturing, cosmetic, and nutraceutical industries.
Mr. Richardson has created eight new products from the mushroom industry including cosmetic additives, extracts of mushrooms for biopharmaceutical uses, novel food products, and others during his over 20 years working in the mushroom industry.
Bob Richardson Sr. – Shareholder and Consultant, HHM
Mr. Richardson Sr. has an extensive business background within technical businesses including analytical testing for environmental remediation, the nutraceutical industry developing novel natural medications, aerospace, and the mushroom industry. Mr. Richardson has started and run analytical testing companies, mushroom farms, health food companies, and nutraceutical companies.
Richardson has built four commercial mushroom farms throughout his career, including a facility in San Marcos California owned by Hokkto Corp that produces over $10,000,000 per year in mushroom products, all in clean room environments.
Mr. Richardson Sr. has created many new machines and processes throughout his career that have greatly streamlined the growth and production of many previously not grown and novel varieties of mushrooms, as well as techniques to improve all the requisite processes increasing output while reducing labor, energy costs, and countless other processes.
Several of these new machines include picking, sorting, preservation, and packing machines reducing the number of people to run the farm from 100 to 5, while increasing output. In addition, Mr. Richardson Sr. has created a brand-new process allowing the production and growth of “Grow Bags” with a reduction of energy cost by as much as 50% while greatly increasing the turnaround time and using far safer and cheaper equipment to do so. Previously with boilers and retorts the total cost to start a venture of this size would cost well past $500,000 and take 6-12 months to secure all the permitting required for the dangerous equipment. Now, a complete buildout of a site for a fraction of the cost and time can be completed within 4 weeks.
Bob Richardson has developed and created a new process and application for mycelia thread that is completely antibacterial. This new technology has many applications from bandages, hospital bedding, all the way to anti-odor clothing products. In addition, Mr. Richardson Sr. has created a science-backed nutraceutical product that is ready for launch that targets all the causes of aging, being able to stave off and in some cases reverse several age-related health issues.
Fran Cashen Wittenberg – Director of Marketing and Shareholder, HHM
With 30+ years’ agency marketing and campaign experience, from start-ups to national corporations, Wittenberg consults with HHM and other clients formulating their marketing, advertising, special events, and public relations campaigns in Texas and California.
Her career began at The Bloom Advertising (currently Publicis Groupe) writing for various national accounts, then VP Creative Director at DBG&H advertising agency, then founded Gallier and Wittenberg, Inc. agency, all in Dallas.
Wittenberg moved to Newport Beach, CA for ten years where she was PR consultant for healthcare associations. During that time, she was on the Orange County Museum of Art Board, and the Pacific Art Fdn board.
An honored creative force, she has spearheaded many successful campaigns and won numerous creative awards for a variety of clients. A community leader, Wittenberg has been extremely active in or chaired events for various non-profits: Multiple Sclerosis, Dallas Museum of Art, KidneyTexas, American Heart Association, and many others.
She is enthusiastic about finding creative ways to help businesses and non-profits achieve their goals. “Creative isn’t good unless it brings results.”