International Cannabis Consulting: Where Catalyst BC Works
Headquartered in Denver, with clients across the United States and abroad. Find every market with a dedicated page, the projects our team has completed outside the U.S., and how a cross-border engagement runs.
A Decade of Harvesting Success - Trusted by Cannabis Operators Worldwide
Find Your Regulatory Market Fast
International cannabis consulting carries cultivation, facility design and operations work into a market with a different regulator, different units and a different idea of what a license allows. The technical work transfers; the licensing work is rebuilt for each market.
Catalyst BC is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Outside the U.S., our project pages record advisory work on a greenhouse campus in Canada and on a medical cannabis facility in Greece. Figures here are company-reported, with sources at the foot of the page.
Meet Catalyst BC's Founders
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Leif Olsen
Chief Executive Officer
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Michael Williamson
Chief Operating Officer
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Ian Miller
Executive Chair
Michael Williamson has designed or consulted on more than 7 million square feet of indoor, greenhouse and outdoor cultivation in the United States, Canada, Colombia, Australia and Switzerland. Five Catalyst BC team members are listed in The Global Top 200 Cannabis Consultants 2026–27: Leif Olsen, Ian Miller, Dr. Matthew Indest, Andy Schnack and Operations Manager Laura Anderson.
As Featured In:
Every Market With a Dedicated Page
Each page below covers that market’s regulator, license types and the services we deliver there. U.S. state pages are listed alphabetically; the U.S. Virgin Islands, Germany and Portugal follow, then three licensing guides with application detail.
United States: 36 states
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Texas
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
U.S. territory and international
Compliant Harvests
Square Feet of Cultivation, Production, and Retail Facilities Designed
Licenses Secured
Canada: Greenhouse Scale Under Federal Licensing
In Canada, commercial cannabis licenses are issued by Health Canada under the Cannabis Regulations, in classes that include micro and standard cultivation, nursery, micro and standard processing, and sale for medical purposes (Health Canada licensing summary).
Our Canadian engagement was technical advisory and performance benchmarking for HEXO Corp, on a greenhouse campus of more than 1.3 million square feet; the table below lists the areas it covered. HEXO was later acquired by Tilray Brands, in a deal that closed on June 22, 2023. Company-reported results: average output up 25 to 35% across key zones and harvest-to-harvest variance down 20% (HEXO Corp case study).
What the HEXO Corp engagement covered
| Area | Work our team did |
|---|---|
| Commissioning | Advisory support during greenhouse commissioning and early production cycles |
| Environment | Climate management and environmental strategy across large greenhouse zones |
| Plants | Propagation and cloning protocols, tissue-culture acclimation, substrate and root-zone management |
| Pests and pathogens | Integrated pest management program and operational changes to reduce pathogen pressure |
| Post-harvest | Drying, trimming and product-preparation planning matched to downstream processing capacity |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
What this means for you: our international cannabis consulting work in Canada has been about scale, and if you run or plan a large Canadian greenhouse, so are your questions: climate across zones, pathogen pressure and whether post-harvest can keep up with harvest. Our controlled environment agriculture consulting is built around them.
Europe: Medical Cannabis Under Medicines Regulators
In Germany, BfArM licenses medical cannabis cultivation and trade under the Medical Cannabis Act, while manufacturing, wholesale and import authorizations come from the state authority where the site lies. In Portugal, INFARMED, the national medicines authority, regulates cultivation, manufacture, wholesale, import and export. A facility in either country is judged as a medicine maker as well as a farm, and that changes what a consultant has to know.
In Greece, we served as technical advisory partner to Curity Pharma, a pharmaceutical company specializing in medical cannabis. Its project page describes a 67,000-square-meter site with a 5,000-square-meter hybrid greenhouse, and records that the company received its operating license for the Larissa facility in March 2025. Our work covered environmental setpoints, vapor pressure deficit and lighting strategy, cultivation room zoning, design review of room layouts, fertigation strategy and utility demand forecasting.
For two countries we publish full regulatory guides, both written from the regulators’ own texts: Germany, with the federal and state authorities set out license by license, and Portugal, including INFARMED’s licensing process.
What the Curity Pharma engagement covered
| Area | Work our team did |
|---|---|
| Cultivation strategy | Environmental setpoints for cultivation and propagation rooms, VPD and lighting strategy, room zoning |
| Design review | Review of room layouts and environmental control strategy; constructability feedback on airflow and zoning |
| Equipment and utilities | Evaluation of environmental control systems, fertigation strategy, lighting strategy, utility demand forecasting |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
What this means for you: if you are building for a European medical market, bring us in at design review, when setpoints, zoning and utilities can still change without tearing out finished rooms.
Latin America, Australia and Beyond
COO Michael Williamson’s cultivation design record extends to Colombia, Australia and Switzerland, part of the more than 7 million square feet he has designed or consulted on. Those markets have no dedicated page on our site yet, so if you are planning there, start with a conversation rather than a guide.
What this means for you: the cultivation, facility and operations work transfers; the licensing work does not. Abroad, pair technical and operating work with local counsel who know the regulator.
How to Set Up a Cross-Border Engagement
Whoever you hire for international cannabis consulting, five steps keep the work on track:
- Start remotely. A first call, such as our free consultation, and your documents: the license or application, drawings and any operating data.
- Map the regulator. Who licenses what, what the facility must meet, and which documents the regulator will inspect. Where a country has a page on our site, that map is already written.
- Split the work. Agree in writing what the consultant delivers and what stays with local counsel, starting with legal opinions.
- Plan the site visits. Spend travel on the moments a remote review cannot replace, such as design review, commissioning and the first production cycles. Our Curity Pharma work, for example, centered on design review: room layouts, zoning and the environmental control strategy.
- Get it in writing. Setpoints, procedures and findings should arrive as documents your team keeps.
A word against our own interest: in a market where we have no project history, a local operator with a track record there may serve you better for licensing. We will say so if that is the case.
States and Countries Without a Page Yet
Fourteen states have no dedicated page on our site: Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Nor do Puerto Rico or Guam, or most countries. Whether there is a license to apply for depends on each state’s own law, so start with that state’s cannabis regulator: where a state has no licensing program, licensing work does not apply there. Cultivation, facility and operations work does not depend on a page existing, and a first call will tell you whether we can support your project.
If your question is cultivation, facility or operations, the market rarely changes our answer. If it is licensing, it depends on the rules, and we will say so. See all of our types of cannabis consulting services.
Choosing a Consultant for a Market You Do Not Know
Firms that call themselves global list many countries. Four questions show which of them have done the work:
- Which projects, where? Ask for named projects in your country or a comparable one, with dates.
- Who regulates, in their words? A firm that knows the market can name the licensing body and its rules without looking them up.
- Who is local? Ask who handles legal filings and who stands in the facility on inspection day.
- What is remote? Ask which parts of the work happen on site and which do not.
What changes when the market changes
| Part of the work | Changes by market? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| License strategy and application | Yes, completely | Each regulator sets its own license types, scoring and timing |
| Facility standards | Often | Markets that license cannabis as a medicine can add pharmaceutical manufacturing requirements |
| Cultivation and environment | Rarely | Plants respond to climate, light and water the same way everywhere |
| Operations and SOPs | Partly | The work is the same; the records a regulator inspects differ |
| Legal and tax | Yes | Always handled by local counsel and accountants |
Swipe the table sideways on a phone.
Everything on this page rests on the same team and record as our U.S. cannabis consulting practice, described in full on our About Us page.
Tell Us Where You Want to Operate
Send us the market, the license you hold or want, and where the project stands. We will tell you what we have done in that market or one like it, what we would need from local partners, and whether we are the right firm to help.
International Cannabis Consulting Questions
Does Catalyst BC work outside the United States?
Yes. Our project pages record advisory work on HEXO Corp’s greenhouse campus in Canada and technical advisory for Curity Pharma’s medical cannabis facility in Greece, and COO Michael Williamson has designed or consulted on cultivation in Canada, Colombia, Australia and Switzerland.
Where is Catalyst BC based?
Catalyst BC is headquartered at 501 S. Cherry St, Suite 1100, Denver, Colorado. How much of an international engagement happens on site and how much remotely is set in the scope.
Who issues commercial cannabis licenses in Canada?
Health Canada, under the Cannabis Regulations, in classes that include micro and standard cultivation, nursery, micro and standard processing, and sale for medical purposes.
Which countries have a dedicated page on your site?
Two countries, Germany and Portugal, each with a regulatory guide, and one U.S. territory, the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the United States, 36 states have their own page.
My state is not listed. Can you still help?
It depends on the state’s law. Fourteen states have no dedicated page yet. Where a state has no licensing program there is no license to apply for, but cultivation, facility and operations work can still apply, and a first call tells you whether we can support your project.
What changes when a project is in another country?
The regulator, the license types and often the facility standard change. Cultivation science, facility design principles and operating discipline carry over.
Is Catalyst BC listed in any international directory?
Yes. Five Catalyst BC team members, CEO Leif Olsen, Executive Chair Ian Miller, Dr. Matthew Indest, Andy Schnack and Operations Manager Laura Anderson, are listed in The Global Top 200 Cannabis Consultants 2026-27, an international directory now in its second edition. The directory does not publish its selection method.
How are international engagements priced?
The same way as U.S. work: by scope, after a free consultation.
Selected Catalyst BC Projects
HEXO Corp’s greenhouse campus in Canada leads the projects below, alongside two U.S. engagements: LeafLine Labs in Minnesota and Bostica in Massachusetts. Curity Pharma, in Greece, is on our full project list.
Hexo Corp.
Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
Bostica
Lynn, MA, United States
Leafline Labs
Cottage Grove, MN, United States
View All Projects
View all Catalyst BC Projects
Sources for the Markets and Projects Above
Provenance. Figures and project details about Catalyst BC are company-reported and come from the Catalyst BC pages below, read on 10/13/2026. The Canadian licensing facts come from Health Canada; the directory listing comes from its publisher.
- Headquarters address; 58+ licenses secured in 10 states: Catalyst BC About Us.
- 7 million+ square feet of cultivation designed or consulted on in the United States, Canada, Colombia, Australia and Switzerland: Michael Williamson’s biography, Catalyst BC About Us.
- HEXO Corp scope and results, 1.3 million square feet, 25 to 35% and 20%, and the Tilray acquisition closing June 22, 2023: HEXO Corp project page and HEXO Corp case study.
- Curity Pharma scope, site sizes and the March 2025 operating license: Curity Pharma project page.
- Germany and Portugal regulators: BfArM, Medical cannabis, INFARMED, Medical cannabis, and our Germany and Portugal pages, each sourced to the regulator.
- Canadian license classes and the issuing authority: Health Canada, Licensing summary.
- Five Catalyst BC team members listed: The Global Top 200 Cannabis Consultants 2026–27, 2nd edition.
- 11M+ square feet designed: Cannabis Facility Design.
Contact Us
Enough about us. We want to hear more about you, your project, and your vision! Get in touch with a real live person today. Don’t worry, we don’t have a long, confusing phone menu, and your email isn’t going to the abyss, we promise. At Catalyst, we provide the service and support we’d want to experience ourselves!