Jack Whitley, Founder and Owner of Applied Media LLC

Industrial Hemp: A Potentially Transformative Opportunity for North Carolina

During a thirty-year business career, Jack has worked for two organizations; a Fortune 50 consumer financial services company and a mid-market e-commerce specialty retailer selling direct to domestic and international consumers. His responsibilities have included marketing, technology, finance, investment, and corporate governance. Jack is also the founder and owner of Applied Media LLC, which provides strategic web planning and governance services to organizational leaders, as well as management of select non-digital initiatives. Jack serves on the board of trustees at Greensboro Day School, and was board chair from 2014 to 2017. He is also a board member, Treasurer, and chair of the Investment Committee for the Tannenbaum-Sternberger Foundation. Jack is a seventh-generation North Carolinian, whose direct descendant, Needham Whitley, was a patriot soldier in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Jack, along with his uncle, is the owner of a family farm in Wayne County, land which has been in the family since at least the early 1800s. Jack became interested in industrial hemp while researching ways to keep the family farm viable, ultimately becoming part of a much bigger initiative which has the potential to transform agribusiness and the wider economy across North Carolina for thousands of farm owners, growers, and manufacturers.