Co-Proprietor
Van Duzer Vineyards LLC

Marilynn Thoma is co-proprietor of Van Duzer Vineyards, an 80 acre estate winery in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, that produces Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, where she oversees all creative projects. Van Duzer has been recognized among the Wine Spectator annual Top 100 Wines and attains 90+ ratings from Wine Advocate and Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar.

Upon graduation from the GSB in 1974, Ms. Thoma joined Quaker Oats in Chicago. When the FCC requested applications for the initial cellular telephone service in the early 1980s, Ms. Thoma assumed the role of vice president of marketing for Cellular Network, eventually submitting applications for non-landline cellular licenses in the top 52 U.S markets. At that time, she and GSB Professor Seenu Srinivansan developed consumer surveys and forecast the demand for cellular service in each market.

Ms. Thoma currently heads the Thoma family office in Chicago. She led the capital campaign that placed Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier and serves on the executive committee. She also is vice chair of the Chicago Humanities Festival, member of the board of trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago, vice-chair and head of the collection committee of the Terra Foundation for American Art, member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Women’s Board, and member of the facilities committee of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago Governing Board. Ms. Thoma serves on the board of the New Mexico Museums Foundation and Stanford’s Cantor Center Director’s Advisory Council.

In line with their philanthropic interests, in 2002 Marilynn and her husband, Carl, endowed the GSB Thoma Chair in operations, information, and technology held by Professor Hau Lee, and more recently, the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Chair in art and the humanities at Stanford. A native of Oklahoma and undergraduate of Oklahoma State University, Ms. Thoma and her husband have provided support to a number of clubs, endowed a chair, and funded the expansion of a center.

Ms. Thoma and her husband are active collectors of art in the fields of Taos Founders, Santa Fe Modernists, Geometric Abstraction, and Spanish Colonial. Stanford’s Cantor Center for Visual Arts organized a 2006 to 2008 exhibition of the Thoma’s Spanish Colonial collection titled “The Virgin, Saints, and Angels” that toured six international venues. Selected works from the collection can be seen at the Cantor Center.

The Thoma’s reside in Dallas, Chicago, Santa Fe, and Napa Valley. Their two children graduated from Stanford in 2005.