Peter Thiel
| ' | |
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| Occupation | President |
|---|---|
| Employer | Clarium Capital |
Peter Thiel is the President of Clarium Capital. He is also the chairman of the firm's investment committee, which oversees the firms research, investment and trading strategies.
Thiel also has ties to Facebook. He was the first outside investor putting in $500,000 to finance the site's original expansion in 2004. [1]
Thiel made headlines in early February 2011, when he introduced a philanthropic project that would award fellowships of $100,000 to 20 entrepreneurs under the age of 20. The conditions of the award were controversial in that they required the students to drop out of college for two years to pursue their ventures full-time. [2]
Background[edit]
Thiel began his career in securities law at Sullivan & Cromwell before becoming a derivatives trader at CS Financial Products. He founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996, which was the predecessor to Clarium, with $1 million under management. Before founding Clarium, Thiel was the chairman and CEO of Paypal, which was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002. [3]
In addition to managing Clarium, Thiel is active in a variety of philanthropic and educational pursuits; he sits on the board of directors of the Pacific Research Institute and on the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School. He is also a managing partner at The Founders Fund. [4]
Education[edit]
Thiel received a Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy from Stanford University and a JD from Stanford Law School.
References[edit]
- ↑ Hyper-libertarian Facebook billionaire Peter Thiel's appalling plan to pay students to quit college. Slate.
- ↑ Peter Thiel: 21st Century Free Radical. BusinessWeek.
- ↑ Advocates for Self-Government. The Advocates.
- ↑ Peter Thiel Bio. CrunchBase Profile.