about us

Filament Health was founded by experts in botanical extraction and commercialization.

Meet The Team
A person cultivating psilocybin mushrooms in a lab
founding story

The Filament team honed its expertise at Mazza Innovation, a natural extraction startup we scaled from pre-seed to a successful exit in 2018. There, we developed and commercialized patented extraction technologies at a 35,000-square-foot, GMP-compliant commercial facility.

After the sale of Mazza, it became clear our expertise could address a new and urgent challenge. Filament Health’s CEO and Co-Founder, Ben Lightburn, recognized the escalating global mental health crisis and believed psychedelics could play a vital role in treatment - particularly natural psychedelics.

With his entrepreneurial track record and our team’s proven botanical extraction expertise from Mazza, Ben saw a unique opportunity to develop safe, effective natural psychedelic drugs. This vision became the foundation for Filament Health.

Psilocybin Mushrooms on a drying rack in the Filament Health laboratory
our team

Global Experts in Botanical Extraction and Commercialization

Scaled Mazza Innovation from pre-seed to $26M sale to Sensient Technologies in 2018.
Developed and commercialized patent-protected, botanical extraction technology at commercial-scale 35,000 sq. ft. GMP facility.

management

Todd Shapiro
CEO & Director

Lisa Ranken
Chief Operating Officer
PEng, MEng, CPHR     *VP, Operations, Mazza Innovation

Operational and leadership expertise in rapidly growing industries

Ryan Moss
Chief Science Officer
M. Analytical Chemistry *Director of Research at Mazza Innovation

Expert in the field of botanical extraction, purification, standardization

Sarah Hashkes
Director

Steven Nguyen
Interim Chief Financial Officer
CPA, BBA

Experienced in audit, accounting, tax, and financial reporting

Research & industry partners

In Memory of Tom Kineshanko

Filament Health Co-Founder Tom Kineshanko was a visionary - we are forever grateful for his entrepreneurial spirit and his powerful drive to make a difference in the world. Filament would not exist without him. 

In Tom’s memory, we have made a donation to the Thomas Kineshanko Memorial Fund at the HollyHock Cortes Island Retreat Centre. If you would like to do the same, please visit:
https://hollyhock.ca/thomas-kineshanko/

Memories and pictures of Tom can be shared on his memorial board: https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/DEoxkOVL/thomas-kineshanko

Image of Tom Kineshanko
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