Ari currently lives in New York City with his wife Anna who is a Yoga Instructor and runs her own yoga studio, Prana on Prince. They are both avid rock climbers and Ari is an equally avid golfer.

Ari went to primary school and high school at the United Nations International School (incidentally where he met his fiance when he was 7 and she was 5) and then he attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He graduated with the class of ’03, one year early with a BS in Economics and concentrations in Real Estate and Entrepreneurship and minors in Art History and Psychology, honored as an Albert A. Berg Scholar.

When Ari was 6 years old he started doing magic shows for birthday parties, then from the ages of 9-12 he was a child model. When he was 12 years old he started tinkering around with web design when a business associate of his father’s offered to pay him to do his site. Ari formed Liontexand eventually did over 150 websites. When he was 16, he got the idea to start a company called Menus-to-Go.com as a directory of takeout and delivery menus in NYC, which would ultimately be the precursor to Food.com and MenuPages.com. At 17 he started TEK, which was a technology consulting company doing home theater, computer networking, and telecommunication installations for homes and businesses.

After graduating from college, Ari went to visit a friend in upstate New York who showed him a group of 1880’s cigar factories, which he bought with the vision of creating luxury lofts. He didn’t have any experience with development or construction so he spent most of the next two years working in every trade that took place on the job. That was Arise Development. He also bought the historic Lackawanna train station that had been converted into an office building as part of my fifth LLC, Railroad Empire.

Once he had finished his work upstate, Ari came back down to the city and focused his attention on the Hamptons, building state of the art commercial office and retail spaces, which included affordable housing. He also started building green and became a LEED accredited professional.

Ari created LEED Pro as a green building consulting business and to operate the LEED Pro Blog on green building materials which got picked up for a book deal with Princeton Architectural Press calledLEED Materials: A Resource Guide to Green Building. He is currently focused on green building consulting for various projects around the country including a commercial space at the Visionaire, a LEED Platinum building in Battery Park City.

Five Star Apps, is an Iphone App development company Ari started with four friends to brainstorm, develop, and market applications for the Iphone.

Most recently, Ari has been developing LEED certified, mixed use properties in the Hamptons through Meisel Development. His first solo project in the Hamptons, SylvanHaus a retail and affordable apartment development, is slated to begin construction in Summer 2010.

Awards and Accreditations:
FAA Certified Pilot and former USAF Civil Air Patrol Airmen
USGBC LEED Accredited Professional
Red Cross First Aid/CPR Certified
Amateur Radio Technician – Call Sign KC2WNU
Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2002
Young IT Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2000
AIA Archie Award 2009 for SylvanHaus
AIA Archie Award 2007 for Watermill Ateliers
Multi-Housing News Design Excellence Award 2007 for Depot Lofts
Creator of PapierTile – Polymer based construction material
Face of Rage Against the Machine album cover Evil Empire

Committee and Boards
Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America – Board Member
Gerson Lerhman Group – Real Estate Advisory Council Member
USGBC New York LEED Committee and LEED for Homes Committee
Broome County Regional Airport Former Advisory Board Member
Binghamton Commission on Architecture and Urban Design Former Chairman
Southern Tier Celebrates! Former Chairman
Corporate Advisory Board for GreenKonnect
Advisory Board for The Relentless Foundation
Executive Producer of Sci-Fi series Pioneer One
Advisor to Wok & Wine events company

Speaking Engagements
The Cooper Union – April 2010Conrad Foundation Innovation Awards – April 2010
New York City Entrepreneurship Week – April 2010
Parsons School of Design – Feb 2010
Syracuse University – Feb 2010
New York University – Jan 2010
Sustainable Design Workshop: Studio 901 – Jan 2010
NYC Entrepreneurship Week – April 2009
United Nations International School – Mar 2009
Long Island University – Nov 2008
Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour – Ongoing
Duke University – Nov 2007
I Live NY Summit – Cortland, NY Sept 2007
Baruch College March 2007
Monday Afternoon Club Feb 2006
Ithaca College Nov 2005
Binghamton SERTOMA Club Nov 2005
New York University – Stern School Sep 2005
Binghamton University Sep 2005
Southern Tier Opportunity Coalition Sep 2005
United Way Day of Caring, Sep 2005
Binghamton Rotary Club May 2005
Broome Community College Nov 2004
Binghamton Chamber of Commerce June 2004
Binghamton Rotary Club June 2004
Broome Leadership Institute May 2004, October 2004
The Hillcrest Rotary Club April 2004
Children’s Home of Wyoming Conference Feb 2004
Binghamton High School Jan 2004

Read more: http://arim.weebly.com/venturesbio.html#ixzz0oWUZJN5z