Background and career
Peter Thum (born c. 1970) is an American businessman. He has founded several companies and not-for-profit organizations. He is best known for creating the brand Ethos Water and leading the company as its president through its acquisition by Starbucks.
Thum graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 1990 with a degree in government. He then moved to Berlin, Germany, after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He went on to earn an MBA from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
In 2001, while working on a consulting project in South Africa for McKinsey & Company, Thum met people who lived in the townships and countryside who did not have access to safe water and adequate sanitation. These experiences inspired him to come up with the idea for Ethos Water. Thum led Ethos as president through its acquisition by Starbucks in 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he managed Ethos and other businesses as a vice president of Starbucks and guided its philanthropy as a Director of the Starbucks Foundation.
In 2008, Thum founded the not-for-profit organization Giving Water. Its mission is to fund programs providing water, adequate sanitation and hygiene education for children in need. Since then Giving Water has funded programs for over 6,000 school children in Kenya.
Thum cofounded and is CEO of Fonderie 47, a brand formed in 2009 to turn assault rifles into jewelry, watches and accessories, under the stated aim of reducing the number and impact of assault rifles and other small arms.
In 2013, Thum launched Liberty United, an organization that partners with American communities and law enforcement to take illegal guns and bullet shell casings released from evidence and to create jewelry and other accessories in order to fund programs to reduce gun violence. Mark Ruffalo participated in the launch of the project. The organization provides children with extracurricular academic, sports and art classes, as well as job training.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
