Ben Kovler Net Worth 2026: Green Thumb Industries Founder

Financial news site Benzinga puts Ben Kovler's net worth at about $208 million (checked September 2026), a figure it calculates from the shares he has reported owning as a company insider, mainly in Green Thumb Industries. Kovler founded Green Thumb in Chicago in 2014 with a single dispensary in Mundelein, Illinois, and remains its founder, chairman and CEO. The company reported about $1.1 billion in revenue for 2024 and runs RISE dispensaries across the country.

What Is Ben Kovler's Net Worth?

Benzinga's $208 million estimate is based on insider filings rather than a full picture of his assets. It counts publicly reported shares in Green Thumb and in RYTHM, Inc., valued at market prices, so it moves with the stock. It does not include private investments, real estate or cash, and it may not fully reflect how Green Thumb's multiple share classes are valued. Other sites give very different numbers, from about $9 million on a narrower count of disclosed trades to $100 million on a cannabis-industry list, which shows how much depends on method.

The same Benzinga data shows two useful facts. In 2020 Kovler sold about 17.7 million shares for roughly $133 million, his largest year of sales. In 2024 he bought about 1.2 million shares for around $3 million. The earlier version of this page gave both $208 million and $7 million in back-to-back paragraphs, plus an unsourced salary table; we removed the contradictions and the table.

Where the Money Comes From: Green Thumb Industries

Green Thumb is one of the largest U.S. cannabis companies. It makes and sells cannabis products and runs retail stores in states where cannabis is legal.

• Founded: 2014 in Chicago by Ben Kovler, starting with one dispensary in Mundelein, Illinois.
• Early backers: investor Leon Cooperman, Emily Paxhia and Ari Levy of Levy Restaurants. Peter Kadens served as CEO until 2018, after which Kovler took the role.
• Listing: June 2018 on the Canadian Securities Exchange (GTII); it also trades over the counter in the U.S. as GTBIF. At listing it had 350 employees, seven manufacturing facilities and 50 stores in seven states.
• Size in 2024: about $1.1 billion in revenue, around 4,800 employees, 20 manufacturing facilities and 101 retail locations, per Wikipedia citing the company's results.
• Buybacks: since 2023 the company has repurchased about 29.5 million shares for $203.4 million, and in September 2026 its board authorized up to $50 million more.

Expansion Into New York

Kovler has pushed Green Thumb into large new markets as they open. In August 2021 the company bought 38 acres in Warwick, New York, on the former site of the Mid-Orange Correctional Facility, to build a cultivation and processing plant, and held a groundbreaking that September. The site is now a business park that also hosts other cannabis producers. New York is one of the biggest legal markets in the country, which makes it central to the company's growth plans.

Recent Changes (2025–2026)

2026 has been a significant year for the industry. On April 23, 2026, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a final rule moving state-licensed medical marijuana and FDA-approved cannabis products to Schedule III. The Motley Fool reported that Green Thumb was the first company to act on it, applying on May 4 for DEA registration for some of its medical operations. Kovler said rescheduling changes the future of medical cannabis in America. The shift also matters financially because it removes the Section 280E tax rule that barred cannabis companies from taking normal business deductions.

In September 2026 Kovler said the company had returned more than $200 million to shareholders through buybacks since 2023, including more than $80 million in 2026 alone, while weighing organic growth and acquisitions. Earlier in 2026 he appeared on Bloomberg calling for cannabis reform.

Controversies

In March 2021 Green Thumb disclosed that it was under federal investigation over possible pay-to-play violations related to its lobbying and political donations. In July 2023 rival Chicago cannabis company Cresco Labs sued Green Thumb, alleging it had poached employees. Neither case has been reported as resulting in findings against Kovler personally.

Family

Kovler is married to Amy Kovler, whose family name is Marsico; a 2019 obituary for her mother lists her as Amy (Ben) Kovler, and the couple have two daughters. The photo below shows Kovler with his wife. We removed the earlier page's unsourced age and height listing.

Net Worth Compared

For other executives and investors on this site, see Art Bilger and Brad Farris, both linked from the earlier version of this page, and Brandon Sawalich, who runs a large private company in a regulated health market.

How This Figure Was Reached

We use Benzinga's estimate because it is tied to regulatory filings and is dated, but it is not a complete balance sheet. Cannabis stocks are volatile, and a large move in Green Thumb's share price would change the number quickly. Kovler has not commented on his own wealth.