Executive Appointments at Ispire

Ispire Technology has appointed Jim McCormick chief financial officer. The company also announced the appointments of John Patterson as senior vice president of international nicotine; Dennis Lider as senior vice president of cannabis product sales; and David Hessler as senior vice president of operations.

McCormick has more than three decades of diverse leadership experience to his new role. He started his career in public accounting with KPMG Peat Marwick in 1989, transitioning to consumer goods with Mid-America Pepsi-Cola and later joining BAT’s associate company Brown & Williamson Tobacco in 1992. At BAT, he held various international general management and CFO positions across Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Northern Africa.

Patterson has more than 25 years of extensive experience in the tobacco and next-generation nicotine categories, spanning both U.S. domestic and international markets, notably in the U.K. and the EU. Beginning his career at Altria, Patterson has since held pivotal roles across Europe for Philip Morris International, NJOY and most recently Juul Labs, where he served as senior director and country manager for the United Kingdom.

With more than 20 years of CPG sales leadership experience, Lider boasts over a decade of executive leadership in revenue management. Since 2019, he has held senior-level positions with publicly traded cannabis companies, overseeing wholesale, retail and distribution sales functions. Lider brings a wealth of experience in international market expansions, corporate business development, global sales management and channel diversification.

Hessler, senior vice president of operations, began his career in California’s shipping industry after graduating from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He went to Moscow in 1992, where he spent two decades in the global cigarette industry with PMI and JTI. Hessler led At JTI’s global supply chain organization’s customer service department in Geneva, managing operations across 190 markets with over 5,000 SKUs.

“We’re thrilled to announce this significant talent upgrade at Ispire as we gear up for rapid expansion both domestically and internationally,” said Ispire Co-CEO Michael Wang in a statement.