Carl D. Thoma

Carl D. Thoma is a Founder and Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo. Previously, he was a Co-Founder and Managing Director at Golder, Thoma, Cressey, Rauner and its predecessor funds since 1980. Carl began his career at First Chicago Equity Group, where he helped build a leading private equity firm. He is a recognized pioneer of the buy-and-build strategy that is the foundation of Thoma Bravo's strategy today.

Carl is an avid art collector, which he parallels to the process of acquiring, partnering with and refining a company. His passion for philanthropy and art collecting lead him and his wife Marilynn to form The Carl and Marilynn Thoma Foundation to support arts and education initiatives through grants, scholarships, fellowships, and endowments to create opportunities for young people in rural areas. The Foundation lends and exhibits artwork from their collection of over 1650 objects across four distinct fields: Art of the Spanish Americas, Digital & Media, Japanese Bamboo, Post War Abstract and Sculpture, including Native American art.

In 2023, the Thoma’s launched the Thoma Scholar Program to provider higher education opportunities for rural students from the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma Panhandle and eastern New Mexico with the dual goals of ensuring college completion and developing leaderships skills amongst these students.

The Thoma’s also own and operate Van Duzer Vineyards, a winery they founded in 1998 in the Willamette Valley. A legacy Oregon winery and the defining producer of cool climate Pinot Noir in the recently established Van Duzer Corridor AVA, Van Duzer Vineyards recently celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2023.

Carl is currently on the boards of the McKnight Center for the Performing Arts, New Mexico School for the Arts, the Phoenix Art Museum and SITE Santa Fe. He received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BS in Accounting and Agriculture Economics from Oklahoma State University.