Rita Ward

Rita Ward is the Director of Compliance for RADD, LLC, with 20 years of experience in Compliance, Finance, Business Administration, and Internal Audit. Before joining RADD, she was the AVP of Internal Audit and SOX FDICIA for CIT Bank, now known as First Citizens Bank. Her responsibilities included Consumer Lending, Consumer Banking, Deposits, Consumer Accounting, Wires, Commercial Lending, IT, ELC, Compliance, Servicing, and SOX. Rita was responsible for ensuring and confirming that all lines of business complied with all applicable Federal and State laws. Part of her role was to assist in developing and creating a robust audit department, which includes but is not limited to compliance and audit programs, and risk assessments for CIT Bank. Along with having regulatory compliance and internal audit experience, she has seven years of cannabis-related banking experience. She has developed internal policies and procedures for growers, labs, processors, distributors, and in all areas cannabis. She is the Chairperson for the Southern California Cannabis Association (SCCA), which focuses on keeping legitimate cannabis businesses compliant with California state regulations for cannabis. SCCA offers resources and services to owners in the process of obtaining their licensing for cannabis-related business(es) (CRB). She has performed CRB deposit and lending audits for credit unions, banks, and lenders to confirm cannabis compliance with the regulations of the governing entities for states in which cannabis is legal.