CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS: FORMER CITY OFFICIAL AND WALL STREET BANKER IS NEW MED-MARIJUANA CEO
Vireo Health of New York, one of the state’s five medical-marijuana companies, announced today it has a new chief executive: Ari Hoffnung, a former deputy comptroller for the city and an applicant who just barely missed the cut for a state marijuana license in July. Kyle Kingsley, Vireo’s former chief executive, will serve as chairman of the board and remain at the helm of parent company Vireo Health, which also operates medical-marijuana dispensaries in Minnesota.
Kingsley said that though he had approached several people from companies that did not receive marijuana licenses in New York for the position, “Ari was head and shoulders above everybody else we talked to.” The state Department of Health ranked Hoffnung’s cannabis company, Fiorello Pharmaceuticals, seventh out of the 43 companies that applied.