Daniel Lubetzky

Male

White

Coded from public photographs and family-origin descriptions, not a self-declaration.

Lithuanian-Mexican; Ashkenazi Jewish

coded.ethnicities uses the existing "Mexican" and "Ashkenazi Jewish" buckets. The Wikipedia article describes the Lubetzky family origin as Lithuanian Ashkenazi Jewish.

Born in Mexico to a Holocaust-survivor father who had emigrated to Mexico after the war; moved with his family to San Antonio as a teenager.

Exact age at the move is not given in the sources consulted.

Jewish

not established

Not established in the sources consulted.

not established

Whether his parents' home or money was available as a fallback is not stated.

Took no salary for several years while building PeaceWorks, living on what he had saved and with inventory stored in his apartment.

How he covered living costs in those years is not described beyond his own savings.

not established

He married in 2008, after both PeaceWorks and the KIND launch; no source describes partner support during the build.

The hardship was chosen. There was a home to go back to if it failed.

He left a law and consulting track by choice and could have returned to it.

Father Roman Lubetzky, a Holocaust survivor who became a successful retail businessman in jewelry and duty-free shops; mother Sonia, occupation not established.

A parent worked for themselves, the strongest known predictor of founding.

Stanford Lawyer says his father opened his own jewelry shop; Wikipedia calls him a partner in duty-free chains.

Father had a third-grade education, per Stanford Lawyer; mother's schooling not established.

not established

Not established in the sources consulted.

Father is a Lithuanian-born Holocaust survivor who emigrated to Mexico after 1945. Lubetzky has said the stories shaped his book Do the Kind Thing.

not established

Stanford Lawyer gives no information on how his degrees were paid for.

not established

Not established in the sources consulted.

not established

Not established.

not established

None documented.

Mexico City, then San Antonio, Texas; no ZIP-level mobility join performed.

not established

Pre-college schooling not established.

Mexico City to San Antonio with his family in his teens; Trinity University (San Antonio), study abroad in Israel and France, Stanford Law, then New York.

The Haas Koshland Fellowship in 1993, which sent him to the Middle East and led him to the tomato business that became PeaceWorks.

PeaceWorks, whose supplier relationships and business contacts he says helped him launch KIND.

26

PeaceWorks, 1994; the sources give 1968 as the birth year only.

1

A short stint in law and consulting before the fellowship, though he had run small resale trades since high school.

not established

Not established.

Sold PeaceWorks jars door to door out of a briefcase, per Stanford Lawyer.

2

Sullivan & Cromwell and McKinsey.

JD, Stanford Law School (1993); BA in economics and international relations, Trinity University, magna cum laude

not established

How the degrees were paid for is not established, so coded.credentialFunding of self-funded is a placeholder at low confidence.

not established

Bar admission not established.

Private university, elite law school, then a law firm and McKinsey before the fellowship.

His own savings, invested in relaunching the bankrupt tomato-spread business as PeaceWorks in 1994.

The amount is not stated in any source consulted.

not established

No source says whether his parents lent or gave money to PeaceWorks or KIND. His father's business success makes this a real open question.

not established

Hispanic Executive says the business was financially hard and he went unpaid for years; whether sales covered costs is not stated.

Savings put into PeaceWorks; whether they came from his short law and consulting pay or from earlier family or resale money is not stated.

KIND was started in 2004 and had about $1 million in first-year revenue. VMG Partners invested in 2008. Initial start-up capital for KIND is not disclosed in any source consulted.

Mars bought a minority stake in 2017 and announced full acquisition of Kind North America in November 2020 for a reported $5 billion. Wikipedia reports he sold his remaining stake in 2025.

Forbes describes a controlling Mars stake and an undisclosed remaining stake for Lubetzky; the two sources differ on the endpoint.

Saw a bar of whole nuts and fruit in Australia while traveling for PeaceWorks, per Forbes, and wanted a healthy, convenient snack.

not established

Share classes and voting control before the sale are not established in the sources consulted.

not established

No documented funding rejection found in the sources consulted.

0

PeaceWorks was a struggle but not a documented failure, and the tomato company he relaunched had gone bankrupt before he took it over.

Himself, through unpaid years and his own savings; no outright failure occurred.

36

KIND launched in 2004; birth year 1968.

New York City

The company is described as based in New York City today; the 2004 location is not confirmed.

16

2004 to the 2020 Mars buyout; he stayed involved until selling the rest in 2025.

Snack foods and consumer brands, plus investing and social ventures

2300000000

Forbes real-time figure on the retrieval date. Wikipedia cites $2.2 billion in November 2021. Peak was not separately established.

Journalistic estimate

2026

Mars paid in cash for the 2020 acquisition, per reporting on the $5 billion deal, and he is reported to have sold his remaining stake in 2025, so most of the wealth is likely realized.

The cash terms and his proceeds were not confirmed from a primary source.

Author of the bestseller Do the Kind Thing, Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship (2015), Skoll Award winner (2008, with a $1,000,000 grant to the PeaceWorks Foundation), and a main shark on Shark Tank since 2024.

Uncapped

In 2015 the FDA challenged Kind's use of "healthy" on four snack bars, saying the products exceeded the saturated-fat limit for the claim. Per Wikipedia, Kind revised the labels and reviewed its full product line. A company representative told NPR the nuts in its recipes account for the fat levels.

After

Incidental

Legal gray

None

Labels were revised; no fine or personal liability is documented in the sources consulted.

Mission driven, Kindness focused, cause-minded entrepreneur

Public

After

Asset

The brand and the founder's story were closely tied.

The reputation was deliberately built, through books, press, and PR.