Kim Schaefer Net Worth: Estimate, Sources, and How to Verify

Based on the best available public records, Kim Schaefer (the hospitality and entertainment executive best known as CEO of Great Wolf Resorts) has an estimated net worth somewhere in the range of $1 million to $2.25 million, according to third-party insider-tracking sites that aggregate her SEC-documented equity holdings. That range is a moderate-confidence estimate, not a confirmed figure, and it almost certainly understates her total wealth since it only captures publicly disclosed securities, not private assets, real estate, or cash.

Which Kim Schaefer are we talking about?

"Kim Schaefer" is not an uncommon name, so disambiguation matters before diving into any numbers. The Kim Schaefer most likely to come up in a financial or business context is Kimberly K. Schaefer, the hospitality and entertainment executive with a well-documented career in public companies. She was named Chief Operating Officer of Great Wolf Resorts in March 2005 and then CEO in November 2008, replacing Randy Churchey. After her time at Great Wolf, she became President of Two Bit Circus (an entertainment technology company) around May 2017, and she has served as a director of what is now United Parks & Resorts (formerly SeaWorld Entertainment) since December 2020. SEC filings, corporate governance disclosures, and press records consistently use both "Kim Schaefer" and "Kimberly K. Schaefer" to refer to the same person.

If you were searching for a different Kim Schaefer, for example a private individual, an academic, or someone in a local business context, the financial data covered here will not apply. Everything in this article is specific to the public-company executive whose SEC insider activity is on the record. Readers interested in related profiles on this site may also find the Great Wolf Lodge-focused wealth breakdown and profiles of other Schaefer-surname executives useful for context.

What "net worth" actually means (and how these estimates get built)

Net worth is simply total assets minus total liabilities. For a private individual or executive who is not disclosing a personal balance sheet, estimating that number requires pulling together every documentable asset class: publicly traded stock holdings, real estate records, known business ownership stakes, salary and bonus history, and any other verifiable income streams. From that you subtract documented debts or liabilities where they exist.

For executives like Kim Schaefer who sit on the boards of or lead public companies, the most reliable slice of that picture comes from SEC filings. When an executive receives stock grants, exercises options, or buys or sells shares, those transactions are reported on Form 4 filings with the SEC. Third-party sites like GuruFocus, Benzinga, MarketScreener, and TipRanks harvest those filings and present a running tally of estimated insider holdings. The key word is "insider-based": these figures only reflect the equity disclosed through SEC channels. They do not capture private company stakes, real estate, savings, or any asset that does not flow through a public-company disclosure requirement.

The public record: her career and income trail

Understanding where the money likely came from requires tracing the career chronologically. Kim Schaefer spent the better part of the 2000s rising through Great Wolf Resorts, a publicly traded indoor water park hotel chain. Being COO from 2005 and then CEO from late 2008 through an extended tenure at a publicly traded company would have come with a base salary, executive bonuses, and equity compensation, all of which would have vested over time. Great Wolf Resorts was eventually taken private by Apollo Global Management in 2012 in a deal valued at roughly $703 million, which typically triggers equity payouts for executive insiders holding vested shares or options.

After Great Wolf, she moved into the entertainment technology space. In May 2017, InPark Magazine reported her appointment as President of Two Bit Circus, a tech-entertainment startup that described itself as a "micro-amusement park" concept. SEC filings for Alpine Acquisition Corp. later placed Kim Schaefer in an equityholder and executive context tied to Two Bit Circus's business combination narrative, suggesting she held an ownership or significant equity stake in that venture as well. Two Bit Circus ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 2020, so whether that stake translated into realized value is uncertain.

Her most recent and ongoing public-company role is as a director of United Parks & Resorts, Inc. (ticker: PRKS), which operates SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, and related theme park brands. She has been a director since December 2020. SEC Form 4 data shows that as of a September 30, 2025 grant, her beneficial ownership in the company stood at 35,590 shares. At United Parks & Resorts' share prices in late 2025, that position alone would be worth roughly $1 million to $1.5 million depending on the trading price at any given date. A 2024 United Parks & Resorts annual report also identifies her as CEO of RP Illusions, indicating she remains active in operating roles beyond board service.

What the wealth-tracking sites actually report

Three third-party financial data platforms provide specific figures for Kimberly Schaefer, and they do not fully agree with each other, which is normal for insider-derived estimates.

GuruFocus explicitly frames its number as a floor, not a total: it reflects the documented equity position as calculated from SEC filings, assuming holdings have not been sold unless a subsequent Form 4 shows a disposition. At $248,234, that is almost certainly just a slice of her current holdings rather than a full picture. Benzinga's $2.25 million figure is the highest of the three and likely incorporates a broader set of insider transactions across her career with United Parks & Resorts and possibly prior company positions. MarketScreener's $1 million sits in the middle. None of these figures are confirmed or audited valuations. They are all derived estimates from public filings, and they all exclude private assets.

How to verify the numbers yourself

If you want to check or update these figures independently, the SEC's EDGAR system is the primary starting point. You can search for "Kimberly Schaefer" or "Kimberly K. Schaefer" in the insider filings section and pull every Form 4 tied to her name. Each filing shows the number of shares received, sold, or still held, the date of each transaction, and the price per share. Multiplying current shares held by the current market price gives you the most defensible single estimate of her publicly documented equity value.

1. Go to SEC EDGAR (sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar) and search "Kimberly Schaefer" under the insider filings section.
2. Pull the full list of Form 4 filings to build a chronological picture of grant dates, share counts, and any dispositions (sales or forfeitures).
3. Cross-reference the most recent beneficial ownership figure against United Parks & Resorts' current share price (ticker: PRKS) for an up-to-date equity estimate.
4. Check county property records in Wisconsin (where Great Wolf Resorts is headquartered) or California (where Two Bit Circus operated) for real estate assets, which would add to the total but are not captured in SEC data.
5. Use GuruFocus, Benzinga, and MarketScreener as quick-reference aggregators, but always cross-check their numbers against the raw EDGAR filings since these sites can have lag time or methodological quirks.

When evaluating any third-party wealth site, ask three questions: Does the site cite a specific methodology? Does it link to or reference actual SEC filings? And does it clearly label its figures as estimates rather than confirmed valuations? Sites that present a single clean number with no explanation of how it was derived should be treated with skepticism. The three sources listed above all have some transparency about their insider-based approach, which is why they are cited here rather than general celebrity net-worth aggregators that often fabricate or inflate figures without any documentary basis.

Why the numbers differ (and how confident to be)

The gap between $248,234 and $2.25 million comes down to a few common factors in insider-based net-worth estimation. First, different sites pull Form 4 data at different intervals, so a site that last updated in early 2025 may be missing a significant equity grant that came through in September 2025. Second, some platforms include the estimated value of vested but unexercised options while others count only direct share ownership. Third, the share price used for valuation matters: a site that locked in a price at a market high will show a higher figure than one that used a lower trading day.

There is also a structural limitation that applies to every executive at this career level: the disclosed public equity almost certainly represents a fraction of actual net worth. A multi-year CEO tenure at Great Wolf Resorts, which sold to Apollo for over $700 million, would realistically have generated seven-figure equity payouts for senior executives with vested positions. That historical wealth does not show up in current SEC filings unless it was reinvested into new public-company positions. Private savings, real estate, and any angel investments or private equity interests are entirely invisible in the public record.

Confidence scoring, being honest about it: the $1 million to $2.25 million range from current insider data is a moderate-confidence estimate of her documented public equity alone. If you are trying to estimate her total personal net worth including historical compensation from Great Wolf, that figure could reasonably be $5 million to $20 million or more, but that is a speculative range without documentary support. The insider-tracking data is the only piece that is actually verifiable, so that is where the published estimates anchor.

The bottom line: range, confidence, and what to do next

The most defensible publicly sourced net-worth range for Kim Schaefer (Kimberly K. Schaefer) is $1 million to $2.25 million, based on SEC insider equity data as aggregated by MarketScreener and Benzinga through late 2024 to early 2025. This is a moderate-confidence figure for the equity component only. Her actual total net worth, accounting for career earnings from a decade-plus as a public-company CEO, is likely higher, potentially significantly so, but that portion of her wealth is not documented in any accessible public record.

If you need the most current figure, the right move is to pull the latest Form 4 for Kimberly K. Schaefer on SEC EDGAR, check the beneficial ownership line for her United Parks & Resorts holdings, and multiply by the current PRKS share price. That gives you the freshest possible slice of her documented wealth. For anyone tracking Schaefer-surname executives across the wealth spectrum, comparisons to figures like George Schaeffer (OPI) or Bernie Schaeffer (options trading) illustrate how differently wealth accumulates depending on whether the primary vehicle is executive equity, private business ownership, or investment advisory services. Kim Schaefer's profile sits firmly in the executive-equity category, which makes it more transparent than most but also means the public record captures only part of the picture. If you are specifically looking for Kim Schaefer’s Great Wolf Lodge net worth discussion, the same SEC-linked insider methodology explains why published ranges can differ. For a quick takeaway, Tim Schaecker net worth estimates are typically based on publicly disclosed holdings and company or insider-related disclosures. To understand how these SEC-based equity estimates translate into an overall coalton schaefer net worth discussion, it helps to compare documented public holdings with the broader, often unreported asset picture. If you are specifically looking for Doug Schieffer’s net worth, separate sources and a different set of documents are needed to verify any current estimates.