The Willow Industries Team

Uniting Quality Control and Compliance

Willow Industries is built on one simple principle:

Cannabis businesses should have the resources they need to provide patients and consumers with consistently clean products. That is why we believe in working in tandem with the state regulatory agencies that govern the cannabis industry to provide transparency to our customers. Our systems mitigate surprises during the testing process and inspections while ensuring the highest quality product reaches the end consumer.

Our Story

Jill Ellsworth began her career as an entrepreneur in the health and consumer safety space, creating solutions for better living. Prior to launching Willow Industries, Jill founded Vibrant Earth Juices (VEJ), a Santa Barbara, CA and Denver, CO-based cold-pressed, organic juice company.

This is where she became passionate about pasteurization techniques, employing High Pressure Processing (HPP) to prevent microbial growth and increase the shelf-life and freshness for her juice line. After seeing the lack of health and safety standards in the cannabis industry, Jill saw an opportunity to share her knowledge of food safety with the emerging market, with a goal of bringing a kill-step to cannabis.

In 2015, Willow Industries was founded as the first cannabis microbial decontamination company in the US, based in Denver, CO. With the goal of creating a safe product for consumers while keeping the medicinal properties of the plant intact, Willow Industries began intensive R&D to find a solution to microbial contamination, specifically for cannabis. After finding that Ozone killed harmful microbes, the team designed a machine to employ this method, with cultivator’s needs in mind.

As WillowPure entered the market and they began to save cultivators from failing tests, recalls, and common microbes found on the surface of cannabis, the team developed multiple WillowPure systems for cultivators of different sizes and needs. While continuing to improve the software and mechanism of the models, Willow Industries launched the most recent model, the WillowPure 360 in 2020.

While working with cultivators around the country, it became apparent that there were limited educational resources on microbes and where to find and attack them at specific checkpoints within the pre-and post-harvest processes. In order to provide a holistic partnership to cultivators and long-term success, Willow Industries focused on building out the microbial management arm of their services. With a team of Microbiologists, Willow Industries was able to build out a support system for cultivators that empowers them with quality assurance best practices, and knowledge behind microbial contamination. The result was healthier plants, and lower bioburden on the end product, allowing for a gentle kill step as a preventative measure.

Fast forward to 2023, WillowPure is currently being leveraged by cannabis producers and brands in 38 states, Canada, and Australia.

Meet Our Team

Jill Ellsworth MS, RDN

Founder and CEO

Fueled by her passion for innovation and dedication to health, Jill Ellsworth has made a career of creating solutions for better living. Prior to launching Willow Industries, Jill founded Vibrant Earth Juices (VEJ), a Santa Barbara-based cold-pressed organic juice company. Jill became passionate about pasteurization techniques, employing High Pressure Processing (HPP) to prevent microbial growth and increase the shelf-life and freshness for her juice line.

After seeing the lack of health and safety standards, Jill transitioned into the legal cannabis industry to share her knowledge of food safety with the emerging market. In 2015, Jill founded Willow Industries, the first cannabis decontamination company in the country. Her patented, organic, ozone-based technology, WillowPure, breaks down harmful microbes living on cannabis, without affecting the medicinal properties of the plant, providing cultivators with a solution to ensure patients and consumers have access to consistently clean products. WillowPure systems are being leveraged by cannabis producers and brands in 38 states, Canada and Australia, through long-term leases, rentals, and a mobile service in Colorado.

In 2022, Jill was named in the Forbes Cannabis 42.0 list as one of the top entrepreneurs and change makers in the industry. She was selected by Marijuana Business Daily as one of their 2019 Women to Watch in Cannabis and has been honored by Greendorphin, as one of the 20 most influential women in cannabis.