About

Hirsh Jain is the Founder of Ananda Strategy, a strategy consultancy advising leading cannabis brands, retailers, technology businesses and venture capital funds across the United States, Canada and Western Europe.

 

Ananda Strategy represents many of California’s leading cannabis retailers, helping lead their expansion strategy, competitive licensing efforts and M&A activity, and has helped open many of the top-performing dispensaries in the state. Ananda also serves operators in the Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, and Oregon markets, as well as operators in Canada and Western Europe.

 

Hirsh serves as Vice Chair of the Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, which aims to promote the common interests of cannabis businesses across the United States by advocating for sound public policy and facilitating collaboration between licensed cannabis businesses. 

 

Hirsh is also on the Board of Directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in California, which for fifty years has been working to reform California’s cannabis laws, led the opposition to the War on Drugs in California, and co-sponsored the nation’s first medical cannabis law, Prop 215, in 1996.

 

In addition, Hirsh serves on the Board of Directors of SC Labs, one of the largest cannabis testing labs in the United States. SC Labs provides potency, pesticide, terpene, and microbiological testing services to many of the leading cannabis operators in the country.

 

Hirsh is also an Equity Workshop Instructor at Success Centers, a San Francisco-based non-profit that helps communities impacted by inequality and the War on Drugs develop sustainable career and entrepreneurial paths in the cannabis industry. Hirsh regularly leads Success Centers Workshops on cannabis licensing and policy that help social equity applicants navigate local and state regulatory requirements.

 

Hirsh was previously the Director of Government Affairs at Caliva, a vertically-integrated California cannabis operator. Prior to Caliva, Hirsh was the West Coast Director of Government Affairs at MedMen, a leading cannabis retailer. 

 

Before working in cannabis, Hirsh was the Global Policy Lead at Airbnb based in San Francisco, working closely with government officials to develop legal and regulatory frameworks that enabled Airbnb to operate legally and successfully throughout the world. Hirsh managed the company’s public policy strategy in its most important global markets, including Beijing, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Miami, Montreal, Moscow, New Delhi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Vancouver.

 

Before Airbnb, Hirsh was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in New York, working in the company’s Public Sector Practice. Hirsh worked closely with President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (PCJC) chaired by the CEO of General Electric, Jeff Immelt.

 

Hirsh holds a B.A. in Philosophy from UC Berkeley, where he worked as the Cannabis Lead in the Campus Public Defender’s Office, defending students that were accused of cannabis violations by the University. He also has a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he studied the racially disparate impacts of The War on Drugs.