Pete Kadens is a wealthy businessman with three highly profitable companies in sales outsourcing, solar power, and the legal marijuana industry. He and his family have a strong philanthropic focus on empowering communities.
Ben Kovler, a private-equity manager whose ancestors founded Jim Beam whiskey, is one of GTI’s early investors. He and Kadens have licenses in Massachusetts and Nevada.
Company Overview
Pete Kadens Green Thumb Industries is one of the largest cannabis companies in the country. It has cultivation and retail operations in Illinois, where it got its start, as well as Nevada, Massachusetts, Florida, and Maryland. Its parent company, GTI Holdings, reported a total of $2.5 billion in revenues last year and an estimated market capitalization of $5 billion, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Kadens built a solar energy company that he sold to Edison International and co-founded GTI with private equity investor Ben Kovler, who has a long track record of investing in businesses with social impact. His family name is prominent in Chicago, with a Kovler Lion House and Kovler Seal Pool at Lincoln Park Zoo and a Kovler Diabetes Center at University of Chicago Medical Center.
In addition to his position at GTI, Kadens is chairman of Crazy Clean and a founding investor in NewLake Capital Partners. He and his family also founded HOPE Toledo, an organization that works to help students in poverty attend free college and vocational schools.
Company History
As a sophomore at Bucknell University, Pete Kadens started a company for his business class, selling camping chairs emblazoned with the college’s blue and orange bison logo. It was a success, earning the highest profit his professor had ever seen.
As the CEO of Green Thumb Industries, Kadens helped transform GTI from a start-up planning operations to one of the country’s largest marijuana cultivators and distributors. However, the Chicago-based firm is facing scrutiny over possible pay-to-play activities during its push for coveted state licenses.
KushCo Holdings Inc (OTCQX:KSHB), the premier provider of ancillary products and services to legal cannabis and hemp businesses, today announced the appointment of Pete Kadens, former CEO of Green Thumb Industries, to its advisory board. Kadens will provide guidance and mentorship on the Company’s strategic vision, corporate development and M&A activity to accelerate and maintain long-term profitable growth. He also serves as Chairman emeritus of StreetWise, one of the largest homeless aid organizations in the country.
Company Operations
Founded in 2014, GTI is committed to providing dignified access to safe and effective cannabis while giving back to the communities it serves. Its vertically integrated business includes cultivating, processing, and marketing a full suite of high-end branded marijuana products and owning and operating a rapidly growing national chain of retail cannabis stores called RISE.
The company has a multistate presence and is positioned for long-term profitable growth in tightly regulated markets. GTI operates a robust network of manufacturing facilities, distribution centers and retail outlets with licenses in nine highly regulated states.
GTI has been on a roll, with revenues more than doubling in 2020 and a strong outlook for this year. Its success has caught the attention of investigators, who are looking into possible pay-to-play violations during its push for coveted state licenses. It is unclear whether these efforts will affect the company’s growth plans. In addition to his professional career, Pete Kadens is also a philanthropist and founder of the HOPE Toledo program that provides free college tuition for poor students in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio.
Company Financials
As a co-founder and CEO, Pete Kadens earned about 1.1 million dollars a year from his business. He also serves as the chairman of a new foundation called Hope Chicago, where he makes more money. In addition, he makes donations to various organizations and earns around half a million dollars a year from that.
Kadens has more than 10% of GTII and is required to file early-warning reports in connection with changes in his beneficial ownership of the company. His holdings are in accounts controlled by The Kadens Family Foundation and Kadens Family Holdings, LLC.
He attended Ottawa Hills High School and Bucknell University, where he graduated with a BA in political science. He has been recognized as one of Crain’s 40 Under 40, and a Henry Crown Fellow, which recognizes individuals who create ventures that solve society’s most intractable problems. He has also delivered TED talks on the subject of reforming the war on drugs.