Sean D. Hope is a licensed attorney, commercial real estate developer, multi-dispensary owner, angel investor for Soft Landing, and founder of Diaspora Experiences and Consumption. Hope entered the Cannabis industry in 2018 as an attorney for a multistate medical marijuana company now known as Ayre Wellness. As lead counsel, Hope successfully amended the Cambridge Zoning Ordinance paving the way for the first medical marijuana dispensary in Cambridge, Mass. Leveraging that experience Hope, along with his business partners, continued to lead as a pioneer in Boston’s Cannabis retail marketplace by opening the first recreational dispensary in Cambridge (@YambaMarket 2022) and a second store opening in the summer on 2023 in the shadow of Harvard University (@YambaBoutique). As a Black-owned dispensary and brand, Yamba continues to be an industry leader in retail practices, equity legislation and workplace culture.

Hope’s ability to source and acquire premier dispensary locations during the Massachusetts green rush of 2019 resulted from his 15 years working as permitting/real estate attorney and later a real estate developer through his company Hope Real Estate Enterprises LLC (HRE). Founded in 2018, HRE has developed over 60 units of family affordable housing utilizing Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and numerous state funding sources. Hope’s real estate development operated on both sides of the market acquiring, building and selling numerous luxury single family homes in some of the most highly sought after neighborhoods in the Boston Metro area. In addition to the Yamba Dispensaries Hope continued to invest his time, talent and treasure in the cannabis industry by focusing on the cannabis consumer experiences of wellness, consumption and community building through his company Diaspora Experiences (“Building Community through infused experiences”), where he is founder and CEO.