Michael Auerbach

Michael Auerbach (born November 29, 1975)  is an entrepreneur, investor, business consultant, media producer, and private diplomat.

He is the founder of Subversive Capital, which is dedicated to investing in radical companies whose core missions subvert the status quo and require sophisticated government and regulatory strategies for success. He sits on the board of directors of Atai – the first Nasdaq-listed global psychedelics platform company – and The Parent Company - California's largest vertically integrated cannabis company, where JAY-Z acts as chief visionary officer.

In his capacity as a private diplomat, Auerbach serves as a senior vice president at Albright Stonebridge Group, the global consulting firm chaired by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright. Prior to joining ASG, he founded and then sold a consulting firm to Control Risks – a leading global risk consulting firm.

Early life and education

Auerbach was born in Florida but spent his childhood moving around with his family. His businessman father, Mark Auerbach, was the Chairman of Keystone Camera Company and Executive Chair of Par Pharmaceutical, now Endo Pharma. His mother was a housewife. He has two brothers and a sister.

From age 3-13, Auerbach suffered from parotid facial tumors (benign lymphangioma hemangioma), requiring multiple surgeries over the course of 10 years. This limited Auerbach's ability to attend school and do certain activities. He was treated by the late Hugh Biller at Mt Sinai Hospital. At age 16, Auerbach was diagnosed with epilepsy. His ongoing involvement in the cannabis industry and epilepsy research community stem directly from his struggles with these ailments in his youth. He currently sits on the board of FACES (Finding a Cure for Epilepsy) the organization founded by his neurologist, Orrin Devinsky. He has been seizure-free since 2004.

Auerbach attended Deerfield Elementary School, Montclair Kimberley Academy Middle School, Dalton School, and ultimately graduated a year early from John Jay High School in Cross River, NY. While attending high school he worked for the late Steve Kaufman – a pop artist who worked in Andy Warhol’s factory – as well as Steve’s partner Adam Karen. At age 14, Auerbach helped run gallery openings across from The Limelight nightclub and sell art to collectors throughout Manhattan.

In undergrad at The New School for Social Research, Auerbach studied critical theory and post-colonial studies. He was one of the leaders of the Mobilization for Diversity, Democracy and Economic Justice in 1997, participating in a 19 day hunger strike. It was documented by Oscar winning documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in her Graduate thesis Documentary project, 'The New School Struggle'.

In 2005, Auerbach earned his MA in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. A Jewish student of the Palestinian academic Rashid Khalidi, Auerbach created the Defend Columbia organization to push back against attacks on Arab scholars from groups like The Israel Project and politicians like Anthony Weiner.

Auerbach has been married to his wife, Michal Shtender, since 2003. They have one child, their son Misha.

Professional career

Media

In 1999, Auerbach became an Executive Producer at Pseudo Programs, the first online television company. Its channels included 88hiphop.com, which produced shows with Big Daddy Kane, Nas, Public Enemy, and Eminem. Auerbach produced the first-ever live streaming event of a national convention – the Republican Convention of 2000 – using the Pseudo platform, REAL player, and the first full 360 degree camera, the “BEHERE”. The project was inducted into the Smithsonian.

After Pseudo filed for bankruptcy, Auerbach acquired Josh Harris’ side project, We Live In Public. We Live In Public was the subject of a Sundance-winning documentary of the same name. The We Live in Public offices were housed in the building at 353 Broadway in Tribeca, where Auerbach also opened a cafe on the ground floor. In the wake of September 11th, Auerbach opened the doors of the building for first responders to rest, relax, shower, and eat. The café staff jerry-rigged carts to provide coffee and danish to first responders on the rubble pile and were one of the only civilian groups allowed into the area. After 9/11, Auerbach closed down the café and his internet company to start Tribeca Mobile Group, which helped design the first award show voting system using SMS and developed some of the first ringtones available for purchase in the US.

During the 2010s, Auerbach teamed up with his close friend Patrick Radden Keefe to turn a story he had heard from a friend into the podcast 'Wind of Change'. Produced by Pineapple Street Studios, Crooked Media, and Spotify, 'Wind of Change' explores how the 1990 Scorpions song of the same name might actually have been part of a covert CIA operation to bring down the Soviet Union with Western popular culture. The podcast landed on numerous critics’ year-end best lists, including in the New York Times, and is being adapted for television by Hulu. Auerbach was the subject of the first episode, “My Friend Michael” and acts throughout the series as Keefe's foil as Keefe investigates a story that the two of them obsessed over for a decade. Auerbach received no compensation and a consulting producer credit.

International relations

After receiving his MA in International Relations from Columbia University, Auerbach was hired to be Associate Director of the Security and Peace Initiative, a joint project between The Century Foundation and the Center for American Progress. The Initiative put on a conference in 2006 with speakers that included George Soros and Madeleine Albright, going on to publish Power and Superpower: Global Leadership and Exceptionalism in the 21st Century, with papers written by Susan Rice, John Podesta, George Soros and Gayle Smith. During his three years at The Century Foundation, Auerbach co-founded the Prospects for Peace Initiative, where he and Daniel Levy published articles, held roundtables, and hosted track II negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Auerbach also helped set up the North American branch of the Geneva Initiative.

During this period, Auerbach became increasingly interested in the intersection of human rights and business. He wrote pieces on the subject in the San Francisco Chronicle, Mercury News, Chicago Tribune, and Huffington Post, among other places. In 2007, he left The Century Foundation and founded the consulting firm Social Risks LLC. It provided a range of research and advisory services for clients in the private, public, and nongovernmental sectors to implement internal and external reporting and monitoring of their social environment and footprint. Social Risks completed the first Human Rights Impact Assessment based on The UN’s "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework for Business and Human Rights developed by John Ruggie. In 2009, Social Risks was sold to Control Risks, a specialist risk consultancy specialist, where Auerbach worked for the next four years.

In 2013, Auerbach was recruited to be a senior executive at the Albright Stonebridge Group, the premiere global strategic advisory and commercial diplomacy founded and chaired by Madeleine Albright and the late Samuel Berger. He has been with the firm for almost a decade and is responsible for special projects, including working with the late artist Christo on trying to realize his Mastaba project in the UAE. Auerbach traveled with Christo on over a dozen trips to the UAE before the artist’s death in 2020.

Venture capital

In 2013, Auerbach founded Subversive Capital with his wife, Michal Shtender. The company’s initial investment was in Privateer Holdings, the first and largest cannabis private equity fund of its kind. He discovered Privateer through an article in the Economist, 'The Audacity of Dope', which inspired him to cold call Privateer’s founders. He soon became their largest investor and took a Board seat. At the time, Auerbach was quoted as saying:

"I invested in Privateer and joined the Board because Privateer's management has the experience and plan to push forward an end to a prohibition that incarcerates hundreds of thousands of Americans, weakens our national security, wastes billions of tax dollars and law enforcement resources, and keeps vital medical benefits away from millions of patients. The business community is going to drive the changes to American regulations and I am excited to be part of this change."

Privateer spun out numerous companies including Tilray, Docklight, and Leafly. Auerbach sat on the board of Tilray – the first NASDAQ-listed cannabis company – until it merged with Aphria in May 2021. Subversive Capital continues to invest in the cannabis industry, with a portfolio that includes Rose Los Angeles, Artet, Sweet Reason, Aster Farms, and many others. Subversive Capital has also seeded companies in the nascent psychedelics industry with companies like Compass Pathways, Atai Holdings, Cybin, and Fieldtrip. It invests in other industries as well, from drones to gaming to AI.

In the SPAC market, Subversive Capital is involved as both an investor and a sponsor. Subversive Capital Acquisition Corp launched in July 2019 raising 575M, the largest Canadian SPAC ever to list. The SPAC closed its transaction on Jan 15 2021, acquiring Caliva, Left Coast Ventures, and SISU Extracts as well as partnering with Roc Nation to bring JAY-Z on board as the Chief Visionary Officer of what is now called The Parent Company. Subversive Capital’s second SPAC announced a transaction to acquire Intercure LTD – a Tel Aviv Stock Exchange listed cannabis company chaired by the former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak.

References

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