Daniel Lubetzky

Daniel Lubetzky’s father was a holocaust survivor and taught his son “that even small acts of kindness — the tiniest touches of humanity — can have a transformative impact.” Born in Mexico, Lubetzky moved with his family to the U.S. as a teenager. Inspired by his father’s example, he embarked on a journey to make a meaningful impact through business. He started out with PeaceWorks, a company bringing together people in conflict regions in the Middle East through collaborative business ventures. In 2004, noticing the lack of healthy and convenient food available while traveling, Lubetzky founded KIND, creating a snack bar to promote healthier and more wholesome snacking options. Today, the company is a thriving multibillion-dollar enterprise.

Beyond its products, KIND has also been involved in various charitable initiatives, promoting kindness through the KIND Foundation, supporting disaster relief, antibullying campaigns, and entrepreneurial innovation. In addition to kindness, Lubetzky’s work also focuses on healing political and cultural division in the country. He believes that one of the greatest strengths of our system is that it allows for us to have differences, that we should even be proud of them. “America is not brought together by one religion or ethnicity,” he says. “It is a set of values that brings us together. The rule of law, the freedom and democracy, our civility and kindness, the way we listen to one another, and being able to agree [or] to disagree when necessary, these are the special aspects of the American spirit and system that we should not take for granted.” To help Americans overcome division and to foster the spirit of collaboration, he created Starts With Us, which helps people refocus their energies and attention toward working out common-ground solutions to divisive issues. For Lubetzky, building bridges is the common thread that ties together everything he does: “I promised myself that I would try to prevent what happened to my father from happening again. So every venture I’ve launched has some element of trying to bring people together.”

Instagram: @daniellubetzky

Twitter: @DanielLubetzky