Peter Thiel
Founder
Staff
Peter Thiel is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist.
He first gained attention for innovations in banking and startup finance. Today he is known as the mentor of the PayPal mafia of entrepreneurs, as well as for his warnings of a coming technology deficit with severe economic consequences. He works to accelerate innovation to prevent such a crisis by identifying and funding promising technology ideas and by guiding successful companies to scale and dominate their industries.
James O’Neill
Co-founderJim runs the Thiel Foundation, which promotes science and liberty across the globe and opposes violence in all its forms. He co-founded and oversees the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship, which identifies and supports the tech visionaries of tomorrow in fields as diverse as robotics, biotech, space, communications, energy, and transportation. He also serves as a managing director of Clarium. Previously, he was the principal associate deputy secretary of health and human services. He lives in Mill Valley with his wife, Lien, and their three children.
Jonathan Cain
President of the Thiel FoundationJonathan Cain is co-founder of the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship, which identifies and supports the tech visionaries of tomorrow. He also serves as a principal at Clarium and sits on the boards of the SENS Foundation, a nonprofit that works to develop, promote, and ensure widespread access to regenerative medicine solutions to the disabilities and diseases of aging, and the Seasteading Institute, which works to further the long-term growth of the seasteading movement. Before joining the Thiel Foundation and Clarium, Jonathan served as speechwriter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He lives with his wife, Robyn, in San Francisco.
Danielle Strachman
Program Director of the Thiel FellowshipDanielle’s passion for disrupting education led to her current role, in which she leads the design and operations of the Thiel Fellowship program. After graduating college in 2002, she decided to go the entrepreneurial route instead of enrolling in a PhD program. Leaving behind everything she knew, she moved to California where she started an educational consulting business serving the homeschooling community. It was this group of passionate and driven young people who inspired her to create Innovations Academy, a charter school in San Diego, which she led for 4 years. Danielle finds leading the Thiel Fellowship a perfect fit with her drive to transform education, her love of entrepreneurship, and her fascination with science and technology.
Mike Gibson
Vice-President of Grant Making at the Thiel FoundationA proud Oxford University dropout, Michael is a policy associate at Clarium Capital Management and a vice president at the Thiel Foundation. He lives in San Francisco.
Deepali Roy
Adviser, Thiel FellowshipDeepali left grad school to pursue the startup space in both e-commerce and network storage. She is a senior engineer in Risk and Operations at Clarium and an adviser to the 20 under 20 Thiel Fellowship.
