Monique Ellis is a London-based entrepreneur and investor. She is the co-founder and CEO of Chilam, the medicinal cannabis brand that personifies her vision for a future where empowered patients and customers have access to better pain management.
After discovering a passion for impactful entrepreneurship at a young age in Sydney, Australia – where she was born and educated – Ellis thrived as an executive recruitment consultant working with high-profile multinational businesses. Here she showcased an intrinsic zest and aptitude for collaborating with and empowering a wide range of talent.
The insights and experience gained whilst solving the specific problems her client organizations faced when matching the best people and positions gave her an idea that led to her co-founding Wunderkind – a recruitment-focused SaaS tech firm based in Australia. She built the business and held the position of Managing Director for several years until it was successfully acquired by Massive Interactive.
She immediately joined the acquiring company as Senior VP of People, Culture, and Operations, followed by Chief Operations Officer. Here she directed an award-winning team of more than 500 experts and drove continual improvements. Her unique approach guided the team towards a further substantial acquisition by Deltatre. She continued as Chief Delivery Officer with Deltatre for several years, then transitioned completely to Chilam following an initial set-up phase.
For Ellis, her new venture represents far more than just an exciting moment in a space with untapped and escalating potential. Inspired by her journey with medicinal cannabis and those of close friends and family, Chilam was founded to tackle the problem of ethical pain management with high-quality, full-spectrum cannabis extracts – this solution represents the efficacy and potential she has seen first-hand.
She witnessed both her father and sister-in-law, who suffer from spinal issues, undergo hundreds of procedures that have left them with debilitating pain and few options other than traditional opioid-based medications. Inhibited from living their fullest lives due to the side effects of opioids, both have embarked on journeys with medicinal cannabis. Witnessing the life-changing therapeutic benefits that medicinal cannabis offered her family was eye-opening and confirmed the safety and effectiveness of cannabinoid-based medicine.
Monique has endured endometriosis and polycystic ovaries in her own life. This chronic condition impacts ten percent of women globally and can cause severely debilitating long-term pain. For Monique and countless women around the world, the treatment options are limited. Like most patients, she found herself taking a large number of oral ibuprofen capsules a day for pain management. Convinced there had to be a better way, and inspired by the journeys of her friends and family, she began researching the potential of full-spectrum cannabis extracts to treat and manage long-term pain.
This breakthrough moment led to a change in her quality of life and is now the driving force behind her daily journey to unleash the full potential of medicinal cannabis and technology in harmony. She believes that few things are more important than giving people living with endemic conditions the comfort she has discovered and that they all deserve.