Bill Thompson

William Colridge Thompson Jr. (born July 10, 1953) is an American politician who served as the 42nd Comptroller of New York City; sworn into office on January 1, 2002, he was reelected to serve a second term that began on January 1, 2006. He did not seek re-election in 2009. Instead he ran for mayor, and he was succeeded as comptroller by John Liu. On June 15, 2016, Thompson was appointed by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo as chairman of the board of trustees of The City University of New York; his term ended in June 2022. Thompson ran unsuccessfully in the 2009 election for Mayor of New York as the nominee of the Democratic and Working Families parties, and he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the 2013 election for mayor. Early life and education Thompson was born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. He is the son of Elaine Thompson, a New York City public-school teacher, and William C. Thompson Sr., formerly a prominent Brooklyn Democratic Party leader, City Councilman, State Senator and judge on New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division. His grandparents immigrated to New York City from Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean. Thompson attended Midwood High School, a public school in Brooklyn, and graduated from Tufts University in 1974. Career Upon his graduation from Tufts University in 1974, until 1982, Thompson served as the special assistant and chief of staff to former Brooklyn Democratic Rep. Fred Richmond, who pleaded guilty to income tax evasion, marijuana possession and making an illegal payment to a government employee and who resigned his seat pursuant to a plea agreement in 1982. Later, Thompson became the youngest Brooklyn Deputy Borough President. As deputy to Borough President Howard Golden, Thompson was Golden's designee to the New York City Board of Estimate. Following the Crown Heights riots, Thompson worked to fix the racial divide that had paralyzed Brooklyn. In 1993, Thompson moved to the private sector for one year, taking a position as senior vice president of the investment firm George K. Baum & Co.