Peter Thiel ( born October 11, 1967 )
The life cycle
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Important years of life
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1996 7
2003 5
2008 1
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2015 8
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wiki information
…After graduation, he worked as a judicial clerk for Judge James Larry Edmondson, a securities lawyer for Sullivan & Cromwell, a speechwriter for former-U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett and as a derivatives trader at Credit Suisse prior to founding Thiel Capital in 1996
In 2003, Clarium Capital reflected a return of 65.6% as Thiel successfully bet that the United States dollar would weaken.
Clarium’s assets under management indeed, after achieving a 40.3% return in 2007, grew to over $7 billion by 2008, but plummeted as financial markets collapsed near the start of 2009. By 2011, after missing out on the economic rebound, many key investors pulled out, causing Clarium’s assets to be valued at $350 million, over half of which was Thiel’s own money…
On April 15, 2008, Thiel pledged $500,000 to the new Seasteading Institute, directed by Patri Friedman, whose mission is “to establish permanent, autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation and innovation with diverse social, political, and legal systems”. This was followed in February 2010 by a subsequent grant of $250,000, and an additional $100,000 in matching funds
In a talk at the Seasteading Institute conference in November 2009, Thiel explained why he believed that seasteading was necessary for the future of humanity.
In 2011, Thiel was reported as having given a total of $1.25 million to the Seasteading Institute. According to the Daily Mail, he was inspired to do so by Ayn Rand’s philosophical novel Atlas Shrugged
Thiel devotes much of his philanthropic efforts to potential breakthrough technologies. In November 2010, Thiel organized a Breakthrough Philanthropy conference that showcased eight nonprofits that he believed were working on radical new ideas in technology, government, and human affairs. A similar conference was organized in December 2011 with the name “Fast Forward”
In October 2011, the Thiel Foundation announced the creation of Breakout Labs, a grant-making program intended to fund early-stage scientific research that may be too radical for traditional scientific funding bodies but also too long-term and speculative for venture investors
Thiel became a New Zealand citizen in 2011 and owns a 193 hectare (477 acre) estate near Lake Wanaka. In January 2017 questions were raised in the New Zealand media about the decision to grant him New Zealand citizenship. Thiel was given a special fast track to citizenship by the then government minister, under a clause in the relevant legislation, despite having visited the country on only four occasions prior to his application. When he applied, he stated he had no intention of living in New Zealand
Thiel is a self-described Christian and a promoter of René Girard’s Christian anthropology. He grew up in an evangelical household but as of 2011 describes his religious beliefs as “somewhat heterodox,” and stated: “I believe Christianity is true but I don’t sort of feel a compelling need to convince other people of that.”
Thiel a partner at Y Combinator since 2015