Peter Gassner Net Worth

Peter Gassner has an estimated net worth of $5.4 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Peter Gassner profile (figures as of October 20, 2026). That is up from $1.7 billion in 2019.

Peter Gassner is a software executive best known as the CEO and founder of Veeva Systems. He built the company to serve pharmaceutical and biotech businesses with cloud software. Before starting Veeva, he worked at IBM, PeopleSoft, and Salesforce. At PeopleSoft, he held roles including chief architect and general manager of PeopleTools. His path to wealth came from building software for a specialized part of the technology market.

His big break came after 4 years at Salesforce, when he saw room for software built for life sciences on Salesforce's platform. In 2007, he started Veeva with Matt Wallach, who had experience selling technology to big pharma. Veeva grew by helping drug companies handle development and commercialization work. Customers named by Forbes include Abbvie and Pfizer. Forbes put Gassner's wealth at $5.4 billion on its real-time billionaires tracker in October 2026.

How Peter Gassner built his fortune

Gassner made his money in software, with a focus on the life sciences industry. Early in his career, he worked on DB2 at IBM's Silicon Valley Lab and also worked at IBM Research's Almaden Research Center. He later spent 9 years at PeopleSoft, where he was chief architect and general manager of PeopleTools. Those jobs gave him deep product and enterprise software experience before he moved into cloud computing.

The key move came after his time at Salesforce as senior vice president of technology. After 4 years there, he identified a gap for software tailored to pharmaceutical and biotech companies and built Veeva around that idea. He launched the company in 2007 with Matt Wallach, along with Doug Ostler and Mitch Wallace. Veeva now helps customers manage drug development and commercialization processes, which is the business behind most of Gassner's wealth.

Forbes net worth snapshot

Forbes has tracked big swings in Gassner's estimated fortune over time. On the World's Billionaires List, Forbes estimated $1.7 billion in 2019, then $2.5 billion in 2020, and $4.6 billion in 2021. The estimate later moved to $3.1 billion in 2022 and $3.5 billion in 2023. Those changes fit the fact that his wealth is tied to a software company in the technology sector rather than a diversified set of businesses.

More recently, Forbes estimated $3.8 billion in 2024 and $4 billion in 2025 before moving to $3.2 billion on the 2026 World's Billionaires List. Forbes later showed a higher figure of $5.4 billion on its real-time tracker as of October 20, 2026. The main driver described by Forbes is Veeva itself, a cloud software provider serving pharmaceutical and biotech companies, so changes in that business are central to the estimate.