John Wendell Thompson (born April 24, 1949) is an American technology executive who was the chairman of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

from 2014 until June 2021, and chairman of Illumina from 2021 until 2023. He is a former chief executive of Virtual Instruments, a vice-president at

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

and the former chief executive of Symantec. Thompson later became an independent director on the board of Microsoft, and in February 2014, was named chairman. He led the search for Microsoft's next CEO; as a result, Satya Nadella was selected.

Personal life

Born at

Fort Dix, New Jersey Fort Dix, the common name for the Army Support Activity (ASA) located at Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst, is a United States Army post. It is located south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix is under the jurisdiction of the Air For ...

, Thompson attended John F. Kennedy High School in Riviera Beach, Florida (now Suncoast Community High School). He received a

Bachelor of Business Administration A Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is an undergraduate degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of four years and typically 120 credits of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of busine ...

from

Florida A&M University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. ...

in 1971 and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management in 1983. He has worked with Ducks Unlimited as an advocate for outdoor conservation.

Professional life

Before moving on to become Symantec's CEO in 1999, Thompson's 28-year career with IBM Corporation included senior executive positions in sales, marketing and software development, and lastly as general manager of IBM Americas as well as membership in the company’s Worldwide Management Council. In September 2002, Thompson was appointed to the National Infrastructure Advisory Committee ( NIAC) which makes recommendations regarding the security of the critical infrastructure of the United States. Thompson purchased a 20 percent share of the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...

NBA team in 2005 along with three other

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

businessmen under the umbrella of the Bay Area Basketball Partners, L.L.C. In April 2006, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' published a list of the most highly compensated CEOs. Thompson was ranked #8 with a total compensation of US$71.84 million. Thompson retired from his post as CEO of Symantec on April 4, 2009, turning the company's reins over to long-time Symantec executive Enrique Salem. In 2010, Thompson was recognized for his commitment to education in Silicon Valley at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation's 2010 Pioneers & Purpose event. He received the Pioneer Business Leader award, which is awarded to individuals who have achieved outstanding accomplishments in business and education. Thompson was the CEO of the Silicon Valley–based company, Virtual Instruments, which develops applications deployed in virtualized and private cloud computing environments. The company struggled with funding and Thompson’s performance was criticized for going on furloughs during critical periods. In 2016, Thompson left the startup after its merger with Load Dynamix. Thompson joined Microsoft’s board in 2012. On February 4, 2014, Thompson was appointed as chairman of Microsoft, succeeding

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

. On the same day Nadella replaced

Steve Ballmer Steven Anthony Ballmer (; March 24, 1956) is an American businessman and investor who served as chief executive officer of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014. He is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He i ...

as the Microsoft CEO. He stated that he joined the board because he had "admired Microsoft for many, many, many years". Thompson said he considered Microsoft to be "one of the true, iconic companies in our country".

Past and current board memberships

* Illumina * Illinois Governor's Human Resource Advisory Council * Teach For America * Illumio * Liquid Robotics * Rubrik * Seismic Software
Inxeption

Political activity

Thompson was a supporter of

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's campaign during the 2008 election cycle. In January 2009, news sources reported that President-elect Obama was considering Thompson to fill the Secretary of Commerce post in the Obama administration. Ultimately,

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

Judd Gregg was chosen for the post but withdrew his name on February 12. Thompson again remained a potential candidate until the successful appointment of Gary Locke. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appointed Thompson to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2009.

References

External links

John W. Thompson-Chairman-Microsoft

Stanford eCorner: John Thompson
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, John W. 1949 births Living people Florida A&M University alumni MIT Sloan School of Management alumni MIT Sloan Fellows Directors of Microsoft American technology chief executives IBM employees Gen Digital people African-American business executives American business executives People from Fort Dix 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people