Chuck Rifici

Chuck Rifici (born Charles Orifici) is a Canadian entrepreneur, former CEO of Tweed Marijuana Inc, and former CFO of the Liberal Party of Canada. He has been tagged "the godfather of Canadian weed".

Background

Chuck Rifici got an MBA from Queen's University. He launched a software startup as a second-year engineering student at the University of Ottawa. Rifici served as CFO of Select Start Studios, Marchwell Ventures Ltd, Impatica Inc, and of Cybersurf Corp.

In 2011, Rifici was appointed CFO of Liberal Party of Canada by interim party leader Bob Rae, an appointment upheld by incoming Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. He is currently CEO of Nesta Holding Co., a private equity firm that invests in the cannabis industry. He is also a Chartered Professional Accountant.

In 2013, Rifici and Bruce Linton founded Tweed Marijuana Inc. They acquired a large manufacturing plant in Smiths Falls, got listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, and rose $24 million from investors. Rifici owned 70% of the company' s shares The company grew from 0 to 80 employees in 8 months. Chuck Rifici remained the company's largest stockholder, and sued Tweed for wrongful dismissal. He asked for a 12-month instead of the 4 he received, and $100K for "mental distress". In 2016, Tweed inc. replied that Rifici was dismissed because he consistently missed milestones in the renovation of the Smiths Falls facilities, and that the company was on its way to insolvency He also joined the board of three marijuana-producing companies that combined a market value of $13 billion, from resigned from all three boards in May 2017 to run Auxly Cannabis Group, formerly Cannabis Wheaton, a platform to invest in marijuana entrepreneurs. In October 2018, he committed $25k to fight drug-impaired driving laws.

Awards 2014: Top Forty under 40 by Ottawa Business Journal 2014: Alumnus of the year by the University of Ottawa faculty of engineering 2014: Exceptional new business award by the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce