5/27/2010
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On May 26, Thomas M. Siebel (MS 1983, Computer Science) was honored with the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution. At the same event, the Honorable Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service.
“These two leaders personify the attributes we seek to honor at the Woodrow Wilson Center,” said Lee H. Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson Center. "Their contributions have been numerous and significant, and it gives me great pleasure that the Board of Trustees has chosen to recognize such worthy honorees.”
Thomas M. Siebel Siebel was founder, chairman, and CEO of Siebel Systems, one of the world’s leading business software companies, with 4,500 customers and more than $2 billion in revenues when it merged with Oracle Corporation in 2006. Prior to founding Siebel Systems, he served as CEO of Gain Technology and led the multimedia company to a successful merger with Sybase Corporation.
In addition to his success in business, Siebel has also been a generous humanitarian. He is the founder and chairman of two philanthropic foundations: The Siebel Foundation and The Meth Project Foundation. The Siebel Foundation was established in 1996 to support projects and organizations that improve the quality of life, environment, and education of the community, including programs advancing research and education and serving the homeless and underprivileged.
The Meth Project Foundation is a prevention-focused campaign aimed at reducing teen methamphetamine use through public service messaging, public policy, and community outreach. In 2006 The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy recognized the project as the Most Influential Drug Program. Barron’s ranked Siebel among the world’s Top 25 Philanthropists in 2009, and Business Week named Siebel one of the Top 50 Most Generous Philanthropists in the United States in 2007 and 2008.
A corporate gift from Siebel Systems in 2000 established the Siebel Scholars Fellowship Program at the nation’s top 11 computer science and business colleges, including the Department of Computer Science at Illinois. And in 1999, Siebel donated $32 million to the Urbana campus to help construct the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science. In June, 2007, the University of Illinois announced a record $100 million gift to establish the Thomas M. Siebel Fund for Excellence, to support collaborative work that addresses major problems and opportunities facing humankind in this century, including the convergence of the computational and life sciences and breakthrough developments in energy and human health. In April 2010, Siebel returned to campus to deliver the inaugural Dean’s Distinguished Leadership Lecture, and he was part of the first class of inductees to the Engineering at Illinois Hall of Fame.
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, established by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1968 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the living, national memorial to the United States’ 28th president. The Woodrow Wilson Awards recognize leaders in government, business, science, the arts, and beyond who have embraced openness, dialogue, and service in confronting the issues of their day on the local, national, and international levels. Since their inception more than ten years ago, the Awards have been presented in major cities across the United States and around the world.