The Oakland Equity Collective (OEC) is a powerhouse collective of cannabis brands specifically focusing on Social Equity operators in the City of Oakland.
The collective works to support new and existing cannabis businesses in launching and building successful brands by offering technical support, manufacturing, and co-packaging. OEC offers resources to both General and Social Equity operators to ensure compliance, support profitability, and empower successful cannabis business ownership. The OEC Shared-Use Kitchen provides six equity operators with both a rent-free compliant location to manufacture products and support in distributing products to retailers.
Oakland Equity Collective has five owners and partners who each share equal ownership. OEC was co-founded by: Adolph Ward II, President and founder of DDS Holdings, and has successfully operated in Oakland’s equity program since its inception in 2017. He is an Oakland native with deep community ties and takes pride in advocating on behalf of equity operators in the city and throughout the state. Adolph’s professional expertise spans property management, sales, supply chain management, print media, and generating consumer demand. His current projects involve several commercial cannabis retail operations, including Zipp Delivery.
Mahlate Hagos is the Co-Founder of Doing It Ourselves (DIOS), a 100% black-owned Type-11 cannabis distribution company based in Oakland, CA. Mahlate grew up in West Oakland, a neighborhood that was overpoliced and suffered greatly during the War on Drugs. Mahlate strives to leverage her roots and values to advance equity in the cannabis industry and uplift the local cannabis community. A proud first-generation Ethiopian, Mahlate graduated with a Master’s from Golden Gate University and trained professionally as a project manager. She is driven by a desire to build a strong brand and remains fully vested in her community.
Ron Tea was born and raised in San Francisco Chinatown in the late ’60s & 70s and was involved with gang life and violence very early in life. From these experiences, Ron developed a passion for mentoring at-risk youth and gives back by helping young people find direction and accomplish their goals.
Taalib A. B. Muhammad was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a graduate of Castlemont High School, Laney College, and Golden Gate University. After earning his Certificate in Hotel and Restaurant Management, he began his career as a manager within Nordstrom’s Cafes. He began making wines 12 years ago and first started experimenting with THC infusions in 2017. Sourcing his grapes from Solano County, his non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused wines have been successfully quality-tested by the Steep Hills Cannabis Laboratory.
Assata Bilal has over two decades of experience in the cannabis industry, in operations ranging from cultivation to manufacturing and distribution. In the Southeast, she served as co-owner of 4 Tha Soul catering and craft service, which also offered infused edibles. Assata graduated from the Hood Incubator Cannabis Business Accelerator, where she won the award for Pitch Day Fan Favorite.
OEC offers flower, pre-roll, vape cartridges, concentrates, and topicals, best known for its Solventless Hash Rosin. Showcased today are OEC’s most popular SKUs: 1G Solventless Hash Rosin (they’re the 1st and only Equity company to produce a live rosin line); Hand-rolled 2G blunts with a cigar-style wrap and glass tip; and 4oz Indoor Small Bud jarred flower.
OEC both manufactures and packages its craft products in a state-of-the-art cannabis facility. Its production gifts the growers the ability to easily introduce new products to the market, offer up examples for cannabis brand incubation cohorts, and showcase unique white labeling capabilities to consumers and clients. The OEC’s passion is to support equity brands to thrive every step of the way, from production to distribution.
Follow the brand and its powerful mission on Instagram at @oaklandequitycollective.
