Pete Kadens is a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist, currently serving as Chairman of The Kadens Family Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to closing the pervasive wealth and education gaps in the US.

Pete retired in August 2018 as CEO of Green Thumb Industries (GTI), one of the largest publicly-traded, legal cannabis operators in the US with a current market capitalization of over $6 billion. Prior to that, in 2008, Pete started one of the largest commercial solar companies in the US, SoCore Energy, named one of Chicago’s most innovative businesses by the Chicago Innovation Awards. He employed over 4,000 people and created billions in shareholder value over his 18-year career as a CEO.

Pete was named one of the Crain’s Chicago Business “40 Under 40” in 2012, and in 2019, he was named a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, a fellowship that accepts roughly 20 individuals from around the world each year to create ventures that solve society’s intractable problems.

Pete is the chairman emeritus at StreetWise and sits on several other boards in the for-profit and nonprofit space. In 2019 Pete founded HOPE Toledo in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, to ensure that Toledo Public School children, and a parent, could go to post-secondary school for free.

Pete earned his BA in political science from Bucknell University.