Hirsh Jain

Founder of Ananda Strategy

Hirsh Jain is the Founder of Ananda Strategy, a consultancy that advises leading cannabis brands, retailers, ancillary technology businesses and venture capital funds across North America and Western Europe. Ananda represents many of California’s leading retailers, and has helped them open many of the top-performing dispensaries in the state.

Hirsh serves as Vice Chair of the California Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, which aims to promote the common interests of cannabis businesses in California by advocating for sound public policy and facilitating collaborations between cannabis operators. 

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 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 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. Before that, he was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in New York, working in the company's Public Sector Practice.

Hirsh has 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 worked for the Human Rights Clinic and published research on the racially disparate impacts of The War on Drugs.