Gay CEO Peter Thiel Joins Trump's Transition Team
- By
- Carlos Santoscoy
- | November 12, 2016
Out billionaire Peter Thiel has joined President-elect Donald Trump's transition team.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence is leading the Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee.
On Friday, Trump announced the committee members.
“The mission of our team will be clear: put together the most highly qualified group of successful leaders who will be able to implement our change agenda in Washington,” Trump said in a written statement.
Estimated to be worth $2.8 billion, Thiel co-founded PayPal and served as its CEO. He's the current chairman of Palantir and serves on Facebook's board of directors. He was among only a handful of tech entrepreneurs to embrace Trump's campaign.
Thiel faced a backlash in October when he revealed that he had donated $1.25 million to the Trump campaign.
He defended his support in a speech he gave at the National Press Club in Washington, where he said that Trump is right on the “big things” and that he'll be “expansive” on LGBT rights.