Washington, D.C., May 15, 2018 — The German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA® is pleased to announce that Peter Thiel, the founder and former CEO of Paypal, who later launched software company Palantir Technologies, will receive the 2018 Distinguished German-American of the Year Award™. Thiel, a native of Frankfurt, Germany, will be presented with the award on Sept. 21 at the foundation’s 32nd Annual Council of 1000 Award and Fundraising Gala at the beautiful Hall of the Americas at the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C.

“Mr. Thiel strongly embodies the spirit of the many immigrants, including those from German-speaking areas, whose vision, commitment, and hard work helped build this great nation,” said Hardy von Auenmueller, President of GAHF. “We are delighted that he will be our honoree, and look forward to a memorable gala that celebrates his world-changing achievements.”

This award from GAHF recognizes him for his many accomplishments. In addition to being an entrepreneur, Thiel is a far-seeing investor and thinker. He invested in Facebook, where he continues to serve as a director, and helped fund LinkedIn, Yelp, as well as dozens of other successful technology startups, and is a partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Founders Fund, which backed startups like popular online marketplace Airbnb and SpaceX. He turned his personal startup experiences into a #1 New York Times bestselling book called “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future.” In addition to his many business undertakings, Thiel also created the Thiel Fellowship, which inspires young people to put the focus on learning rather than schooling, and leads the Thiel Foundation to advance science, technology, and long-term thinking about the future.

He joins an impressive list of German-Americans, including U.S. Ambassador William R. Timken, Jr., the Nobel Prize winner in Medicine Dr. Günter Blobel, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf of Desert Storm fame, Doug Oberhelman, the former chairman and CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., and entrepreneur and philanthropist Philip Frederick Anschutz, whose contributions have been recognized in the past. For more than three decades, GAHF has recognized outstanding leadership and achievement by Americans of German-speaking ancestry in various fields and disciplines; it is the only national society to present such an honor.

For sponsorship information or questions about the gala, please contact Katja Sipple at [email protected].