Peter Thiel is President of Clarium Capital Management, a global macro hedge fund with offices in San Francisco and New York. He oversees the firm's research, investment, and trading strategies. He is also a partner in The Founders Fund, a US$ 50 million venture capital firm. 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 also serves on the boards of non-profit educational organizations, such as Stanford Law School, where he has also taught, and the Hoover Institution. Before starting Clarium, he served as Chairman and CEO of PayPal, Inc., an Internet company he co-founded in December 1998 that was acquired by eBay Inc. for US$ 1.5 billion. Thiel began his financial career as a derivatives trader at CS Financial Products after practising securities law at Sullivan & Cromwell. He won the Herman Lay Award for Entrepreneurship in 2005. He received a BA in Philosophy from Stanford University and a JD from Stanford Law School.