Carl Thoma of Dallas, Texas, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from OSU in 1971 and a master’s in business administration from Stanford in 1973. He grew up on a cattle ranch in the panhandle of Oklahoma and learned about agriculture at an early age. He continues his family ranch of more than 100 years in northeast New Mexico.

 

Thoma began his career at Arizona-Colorado Land & Cattle Co. The company owned ranches, feedlots, farm implement entities and meat packing companies in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado. He then transitioned to the private equity industry and worked for First National Bank of Chicago. He is the founder and managing partner of Thoma Bravo LLC, a private equity management firm and one of the largest software-focused investors in the world with a 40-plus-year history and more than $138 billion in assets.

 

Thoma and his wife, Marilynn, also own and operate Van Duzer Vineyards, a winery established in the Willamette Valley in Oregon in 1998. He became intrigued by the wine industry during college.

 

While at OSU, Thoma represented the Ferguson College of Agriculture on the Student Senate. He remains involved at OSU by serving on the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship Advisory Board, McKnight Center for the Performing Arts Board and the OSU Museum of Art Advisory Board. Most recently, he served on the OSU Presidential Search Committee in 2020. Thoma also supports numerous scholarships, including the John W. Goodwin Endowed Agricultural Economics Scholarship Fund.