Pete Thiel:About Me (Information Technology, Computer Programming & Internet Development)

I was born 3/14/1958 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

I currently maintain a home in Pickerington, Ohio. I have lived in central Ohio most of my adult life, when not in the service or traveling for consulting assignments. I did live in coastal North Carolina (4 years) and in Iwakuni, Japan (5 years) during my time in the USMC.

I am happily married to Dinah (Miller) Thiel who manages multiple senior apartment complexes for United Church Homes in the central Ohio area and I have 5 children, listed by order of appearance:

James Sheets (son)
James is raising his own family (Wife: Sherry, daughter: Brianna & son: Lukas) in Nashville, Tennessee.
Vladimir Thiel (son)
Vlad is living with my daughter-in-law to be Karie Lape in Marietta, Ohio.
Erin Miller (daughter)
Erin is engaged to Derrick Johnson and currently plans to finish her Master's Degree in Education while she substitute teachs.
Jordan Miller (daughter)
Jordan is living with her boyfiriend Thomas Huff in Newark, Ohio and is headed to Culinary school to follow her love of baking.
Morgan Thiel (daughter)
Morgan is attending the Ohio State University with plans to go into veterinary medicine.

I graduated from Hamilton Township High School ,Columbus, Ohio in 1976 and after working for a couple of jobs in various positions and started attending the Ohio State University.

Growing up next to an Air Force base during the Viet Nam conflict and having a family tradition of military service lead me to enlist in the USMC. I spent a decade in the Marines and traveled over a large portion of the world, I saw the best and worst of human behavior during this time and met a lot of truly remarkable people.

One of the people who would have a great impact on my life was Dr. Diane Wolff. Dr. Wolff was in Iwakuni, Japan with her husband and took a job assisting to automate the department where I was working at the time. She took the time to teach me how the computer worked and to get me started in programming.

This was the beginning that lead me to the career I am still in love with today. I completed my education in General Studies and Microcomputer Technology while still stationed in Japan and started teaching for the local Central Texas College branch in the Computer Science department. After my return to the United States I returned to Central Ohio and continued a career in Information Technology.

I became a Certified Novell Engineer when the designation became available, but I have since moved away from the hardware and networking side of IT and dedicated most of my time to programming.

I have worked for several local corporations, a few new startup ventures and have done a lot of consulting. I have had the pleasure of consulting for such organizations as Motorola, American Express, GE Financial Services, Huntington Bank, Cintas and Big Lots.

Being in Information Technology is a pleasure, alway new things to learn and very seldom do you have to do the same thing over and over. I have met and worked with teams of truly exceptional people who have shown me different ways of looking at things and have kept me from getting too narrow in my mindset, a wonderful gift.

A few things I enjoy besides my work are reading,especially science fiction and fantasy:

Glen Cook's Black Company and Garrett P.I. series, Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont's The Malazan Book of the Fallen series, Stephen Michael Stirling's The Change Series, Greg Keyes' The Kingdoms of Bone and Thorn series, George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and anything by James F. David, Michael Moorcock or Michael Crichton and Charles R. Pellegrino.

Playing logic based computer games:

The Myst series, the 7th Guest, the 11th Hour, The Blackstone Chronicles, etc.

I also enjoy growing and learning about carnivorous plants.