Aurora Cannabis Inc. (ACB.TO 1.64%) moved to strengthen its board of directors as it announced chairman Michael Singer will become executive chairman.

The company says Ronald Funk will become the lead independent director, while Shan Atkins will also join the board as a new independent director and head of the audit committee.

Diane Jang, CEO of Hempco Food and Fiber and an Aurora director since November 2017, has resigned from the board.

Atkins is currently on the boards of Darden, SpartanNash, SunOpta and LSC Communications.

Previously, she served on the boards of Shoppers Drug Mart, Tim Hortons and the Pep Boys.

In his new role, Singer says he will continue to work closely with CEO Terry Booth and the rest of the company's senior executive team on the firm's strategic direction, execution and finance.

Singer said that the pace of the company’s growth warranted the need to create more independent board roles, as well as measures to improve its corporate governance practices.

“We want to show leadership on many fronts and we’ve done so by virtue of the recent guidance that we’ve put out in our calendar [second-quarter] that this company will move to profitability,” Singer said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg’s Amanda Lang on Wednesday.

“We’re making a conscious effort to show leadership in this space both from an operational standpoint and from a governance standpoint.”