Jim Cacioppo cut his teeth in the financial world in the early 1990s with investment bank Wasserstein Perella. The bank was co-founded by Bruce Wasserstein, the hostile takeover pioneer portrayed in the book “Barbarians at the Gate” about his $31 billion takeover bid for RJR Nabisco.
Cacioppo, after working at some of New York’s most storied hedge funds, broke into the cannabis industry in 2018 and founded Jushi Holdings, now a growing multistate operator based in Florida.
He brought a “buy big” strategy into cannabis with him, spending tens of millions of dollars on licenses and acquisitions in states such as Illinois and Virginia.
In this episode of “Seed to CEO,” Cacioppo will share:
- How his finance experience helped him in cannabis.
- How to identify lucrative acquisition opportunities in an ever-changing economic environment.
- How to pick markets for new launches.
- How to expand and scale.
Who is Jim Cacioppo?
Jim Cacioppo is the CEO, chair and founder of Boca Raton, Florida-headquartered Jushi Holdings, one of the biggest cannabis MSOs in the nation. Before breaking into cannabis in 2018, Cacioppo spent more than 20 years with some of the most successful hedge funds in finance. Cacioppo is also co-founder and managing partner of One East Partners. He previously served as president and co-portfolio manager of Sandell Asset Management and as head of distressed debt for Halcyon Management, a global investment firm with more than $9 billion in assets. Cacioppo earned a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and an MBA from Harvard University.
