Carl Press is a partner on the Explore team at Thoma Bravo. Based in San Francisco, he joined the firm in 2015. Carl is responsible for founding and co-leading the firm’s Explore platform, which focuses on investing in high-growth, middle-market software and technology companies. The M&A Advisor named Carl the Private Equity Professional of the Year in 2025, and GrowthCap named Carl to its list of Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors for 2021.1 Prior to Thoma Bravo, he was a technology investor at HighBar Partners, an associate in the special situations group at Oaktree Capital Management, and an analyst at UBS Investment Bank. He currently serves as vice chair of the board of trustees at SLS Preschool. Carl holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Palmer Scholar, and a B.S. in electrical engineering, with honors, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Explore
Carl Press
Partner
Award disclosures
1 These awards are the opinions of the parties conferring them and should not be considered an endorsement of Thoma Bravo. Issued by M&A Advisor on November 19, 2025, the Private Equity Professional of the Year award is based on the course of the nominees’ careers. Thoma Bravo paid a nomination fee in connection with the award. Issued by GrowthCap on December 21, 2021, the GrowthCap Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors of 2021 was based on the period of 12-18 months prior to the award being published. Thoma Bravo paid copyright and distribution fees in connection with this award. In general, the receipt of compensation influences, and is likely to present a potential material conflict of interest, relating to any granted award. There can be no assurance that other providers or surveys would utilize the same criteria used to determine this award or reach the same conclusion.