Peter P. Gassner (born 1965) is the CEO and co-founder of Veeva, a company supporting processes in the pharmaceutical industry. With a net worth of US $5.25 billion, he is ranked 494th by Bloomberg on the list of billionaires worldwide.^[1] He is a member of the board of directors of Zoom Video Communications.

Early life

Gassner grew up in Portland, Oregon, the son of Swiss immigrants. His father owned a machine shop. Peter is the third of six children.^[2] When he was 8 years old, he worked as a paperboy. He later worked mowing lawns, in a restaurant, and then, in high school, he had a roofing business. In high school, he was also captain of the wrestling team. A math teacher recommended that he take a computer science class, which influenced his career.^[3]

Gassner kept starting and stopping college, taking extended breaks in Hawaii, Australia, and Thailand, where he worked as a trekking guide.^[4]

When he was 21 years old, he was robbed of all his belongings while hitchhiking through Malaysia.^[4] He earned a degree in computer science from Oregon State University in 1989.^[4]

Career

Gassner worked on DB2 for IBM's Silicon Valley Lab. He also worked for IBM Research at the Almaden Research Center.^{[citation needed]}

Beginning at the age of 30, he worked for PeopleSoft for 9 years as both Chief Architect and General Manager of PeopleTools.^{[citation needed]}

He then worked for Salesforce.com as Senior Vice President of Technology.^[4][3]

After 4 years of working at Salesforce, he saw an opportunity to offer software focused on life sciences built on Salesforce's platform.^[5]

In 2007, along with Matt Wallach, Doug Ostler, and Mitch Wallace, he launched Veeva Systems, a software firm that serves life sciences companies.^[4][3]

Personal life

Gassner is married and has 2 sons.^[3] He lives in Pleasanton, California. He speaks Thai language.