Early Life and Education
Thomas M. Siebel was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 20, 1952. He was one of seven children. Siebel attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in History, a Master of Business Administration, and a Master of Science in Computer Science.
Rise to Success
Siebel's career began at Oracle Corporation, where he held several management positions from 1984 to 1990. In 1993, he founded Siebel Systems, a customer relationship management (CRM) software company. Siebel Systems quickly became a leader in application software. Oracle acquired Siebel Systems in January 2006. In 2009, Siebel founded C3 AI, an enterprise AI software platform and applications company. C3 AI went public in 2020.
Key Business Strategies
Siebel's success is attributed to his deep understanding of information technology. He is the chairman of First Virtual Group, a diversified holding company. He is also the founder of the Montana Meth Project and the Siebel Scholars Foundation. In 2019, Siebel initiated a program at C3 AI that covers the cost for employees to complete the University of Illinois's online Master of Computer Science (MCS) degree through Coursera.
Philanthropy
Siebel is actively involved in philanthropy through the Siebel Foundation. His contributions include donating to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the construction of the Siebel Center for Computer Science, and to establish endowed professorships.
