James Monsees is an American businessman and entrepreneur who has a net worth of $900 million. James Monsees is the co-founder and former chief product officer of the electronic cigarette company Juul Labs. He co-founded the company with Adam Bowen. They met during smoke breaks while both were studying at Stanford in 2004.
Monsees graduated from Whitfield School and then earned his BA from Kenyon College and his MS from Stanford University where he studied product design. Altria purchased a 35% stake in Juul in December 2018 which increase his net worth. Juul was formed in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company had a revenue of $2 billion in 2018 and also employed 1,500 people. The Juul e-cigarette packages nicotine salts from leaf tobacco into cartridges that have a one time use. It became the most popular e-cigarette in the U.S. but has been subject to multiple investigations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration partly due to its high nicotine concentrations.
In December 2018, Juul sold a 35% stake to Altria. A year later the company’s private valuation was $38 billion. Today the company is valued at around $14 billion. Adam and James each reportedly own around 1.75% of the company.
In July 2019 Congressional testimony, California rep Mark DeSaulneir told James that he was “an example of the worst of the Bay Area. You don’t ask for permission, you ask for forgiveness. You’re nothing but a marketer of poison, and your target is young people.”
In March 2020 Monsees stepped down as an adviser and board member of Juul.
| Net Worth: | $900 Million |