Chris Furnari leads communications for Athletic Brewing Company, America’s largest producer of non-alcoholic craft beer.

Prior to joining Athletic Brewing, Furnari spent more than a decade as a business writer covering complex and highly-regulated industries. He helped launch THCnet, a now-defunct cannabis industry news site, and served as its first editor-in-chief. He also covered the beverage business as a contributor for Forbes and ONE37pm, and spent 8.5 years as the editor of Brewbound, a leading online beer business trade outlet.

Published by BevNET.com Inc., Brewbound provides comprehensive information about the beer space, analysis of industry trends, and in-depth interviews with industry leaders. Furnari was a driving force behind the development of Brewbound's daily coverage of the beer sector and its nationwide meetups and multi-day business conferences.

Throughout his career, Furnari has cultivated close relationships with some of the top entrepreneurs and executives across the alcohol and cannabis industries. While at Brewbound, he created the Brew Talks meetup series, developed and executed the content at Brewbound Live, launched a popular beer business podcast, and established creative partnerships with companies like Craft Brew Alliance, Dogfish Head, and Nielsen.

Furnari has a deep passion for content creation, and collaboration, and is constantly working to elevate conversations about the beverage and cannabis industries. He's been cited in mainstream media publications such as The New York Times, CNBC, USA Today, The Boston Globe, Mashable, and Wired Magazine, among others, and was the recipient of a 2016 ASBPE award of excellence for his story "Inside A-B InBev's Acquisition of Elysian Brewing."

In addition to speaking at events hosted by Anheuser-Busch InBev, The Beer Institute, The Kloser Group, and the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild, Furnari has presented to employees of Odell Brewing Company and members of the Turnaround Management Association. He was also a featured speaker at the 2017 Millennial 2020 Conference in New York City. 

Furnari graduated from Santa Clara University in 2008 with a BA in Communication and a focus in journalism. While attending SCU, Furnari served as the sports editor of 'The Santa Clara,' the university's official weekly student newspaper. He was also a member of SCU's cross country and track & field teams, where he recorded personal best times of 1:55.32 in the 800 meters and 50.75 in the 400 meters (both school records at the time).

When he's not drinking beer or discussing the business, Furnari is usually training for his next footrace, attempting to improve his 2:56:50 personal best marathon time and wishing he could still run a 4:16 mile. He is also a proud partner in Bay Area Draft Co., a full-service draft beverage company based in the San Francisco Bay Area.