Ari Hoffnung

Ari Hoffnung serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bridge West Consulting and has been a cannabis industry leader since 2014. Ari served as Chief Operating Officer & Director of Vireo Health where he helped transform the organization from a private cannabis company operating in a single state into a publicly listed multi-state operator. While at Vireo, he helped generate more than $30 million in annual revenues, raise $100 million through equity offerings, debt and sale-leaseback transactions and manage a team of 400 employees throughout the cannabis supply chain. Ari was also the Founder & CEO of Fiorello Pharmaceuticals which sold for $59.6 million to Green Thumb Industries.

Before entering the cannabis industry, Ari oversaw New York City’s $70 billion budget as NYC Deputy Comptroller. He led a research team composed of economists and policy experts who published two-dozen white papers, including two ground-breaking and widely cited reports on the public health and economic impacts of reforming cannabis policies: 100,000 Reasons: Medical Marijuana In The Big Apple and Regulating and Taxing Marijuana: The Fiscal Impact on NYC. Prior to that, Ari served as a Managing Director at Bear Stearns.

Ari holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from Queens College.