Bill Thompson is a native New Yorker with nearly three and a half decades in public service on behalf of New York City. Elected as New York City’s Comptroller in 2001 – and re-elected in 2005 – Bill is a proven leader who energetically works to strengthen the New York City Pension Funds, safeguard the city’s finances, and uncover waste and abuse. He has worked to protect homeowners and renters, promote fair wages for working people, preserve and expand the middle class, and provide better services for seniors, children and all New Yorkers.

A self-described “activist Comptroller”, Bill has expanded the use and scope of his office to greatly increase investments in New York City, including the creation of thousands of units of affordable housing, to encourage significant participation by minorities and women, to aggressively enforce prevailing wage laws, and to fight for corporate governance reform both here and abroad.

Bill Thompson has long advocated for more prudent uses of taxpayer dollars, including: increased use of pay-as-you-capital spending to cut public debt; greater transparency and accountability in government transactions; and the creation of a Rainy Day Fund to sustain services in the event of an economic downturn.

“I was born and raised in New York City,” Bill said at his 2005 inauguration. “I have had the chance to get to know the many communities across the city in my career, and as I have met and worked with individuals and groups in every neighborhood, in every borough, I have seen a city stronger and more unified than ever before.”

From an early age, Bill learned the value of public service and giving back to one’s community. His mother was a public school teacher, and his father, a decorated World War II veteran, has served as a City Councilmember, State Senator and New York State Supreme Court and Appellate Court Justice.

“Our city gave my parents and me the tools we needed to do better,” he once said. “My public education in Brooklyn – elementary, junior and high school – inspired me and gave me the chance to think big.”

Bill attended Brooklyn’s P.S. 161, Andries Hudde Intermediate School and Midwood High School. A graduate of Tufts University, where he received a degree in political science, he currently serves as a member of its Board of Trustees.

Shortly after graduation, he went to work for United States Congressman Fred Richmond as a special assistant, and later was promoted to Chief of Staff. In 1983, he joined the Office of Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, earning the distinction of becoming the youngest Deputy Borough President in Brooklyn’s history.

As Deputy Borough President, Thompson worked with City Hall to prepare the annual budget, worked on land use decisions, and was responsible for a staff of more than 100 people. He helped establish policy in the areas of housing, economic development, and health, among others.

In 1993, he left the Borough president’s Office to serve as Senior Vice President of Public Finance for the George K. Baum & Company, an investment banking firm. The following year, Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden appointed Bill as the borough’s representative to the New York City Board of Education.

In announcing Bill’s appointment, Golden said: “Creative and sensitive leadership on the Board of Education is particularly critical at this time where there is such a need to deal with the basics of education and face up to the terrible condition of school facilities. I am confident that William C. Thompson, Jr. will be a responsive voice for all the children of Brooklyn as the Board of Education goes about setting educational policy for the entire city.”

Bill’s colleagues on the board elected him to serve as Board President two years later, in July 1996. He went on to serve five, one-year terms as President, leading a reform agenda that improved student achievement, raised standards, and fostered greater public accountability.

During his tenure, Bill provided unmatched leadership and stability during very challenging times. He shepherded steady, incremental increases in reading scores, opened up the Board of Education’s books and produced annual school-by-school expenditure reports, worked to restore arts to the schools after a 25-year absence, and was a key player in bringing together the widespread constituencies to make substantial governance changes that eventually led to mayoral control of the public school system. During his tenure, the Board of Education opened its first charter school, the Clearpool Children’s School in Bedford-Stuyvesant (the school is now known as the Brooklyn Charter School).

An article in The New York Times (March 22, 1998) reported that: “Some prominent Democrats say that Mr. Thompson’s gregarious personality, talent for consensus-building and political savvy make him stand out.” Former Chancellor Rudy Crew said at the time: “Bill is one of the most skillful consensus builders I have ever met, and the relatively harmonious nature of the current board is a direct manifestation of his skill.”

Much of his efforts involved ensuring that the Board of Education was more transparent and accountable, goals he deeply values. He also advocated greater parental input in the system, supporting the 1996 landmark school governance bill that in part allowed for greater parental involvement.

Bill’s work received recognition in 1998, when the American Red Cross lauded him for his community service and the Partnership for Children, Inc., presented him with its Ann Vanderbilt Award for Achievement.

In 2001, Bill set his sights on citywide elective office and ran for City Comptroller in the Democratic Primary on a platform advocating greater accountability and transparency in City government. He won the primary and went on to handily win the general election, becoming the 42nd City Comptroller and the first African-American to hold this position.

Bill stepped into the role as the City’s Chief Financial Officer only a few months after the September 11th attacks and amid an unstable economy. Under his stewardship and working with the new City Hall administration, Bill carefully monitored spending and held agencies accountable and worked to diversify the City’s pension portfolio to substantially strengthen its assets.

As a testament to his outstanding record of accomplishment, he was re-elected in 2005.

During his tenure as Comptroller, Bill Thompson has spoken out vociferously against potential transit fare hikes, reported extensively on the importance to our safety and security of bringing our transit system into a “State of Good Repair,” and forced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to make its books public.

An advocate for better healthcare in underserved communities, he disclosed the lack of translators at City hospitals that serve our immigrant populations, pointed out great disparities in health services between communities, and is a vocal advocate for greater access to primary care. He lobbied against the closing of area hospitals before thorough plans were in place for surrounding hospitals to accommodate a greater influx of new patients, particularly in emergency rooms.

Concerned that vulnerable New Yorkers not be overlooked, Bill Thompson successfully persuaded City Hall not to reduce deliveries of Meals-On-Wheels to seniors, and has fought for legislation to protect Mitchell-Lama tenants and preserve affordable housing.

Noting that hundreds of thousands of our young people have been classified as “disconnected”, neither in school nor working, and thousands more “underemployed”, Bill Thompson has championed a new model for Career and Technical education in our high schools, increasing partnerships with the private sector and community colleges to offer our youth training in the marketable skills of today. As Bill Thompson has noted, the self-respect that comes from learning a solid skill is a significant factor in keeping our young people in school, inspiring them to pursue gainful employment and, in many cases, higher education.

A believer in the importance of corporate responsibility, Thompson has exercised New York City’s rights as a major investor to change the corporate culture in hundreds of companies here and around the world, urging companies to protect the environment, safeguard human rights and end discrimination based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or identity.

He gained a national reputation – and his work was featured on “60 Minutes” - for his efforts to stop corporations - Halliburton, General Electric, ConocoPhillips, Cooper Cameron, and the Aon Corporation - from engaging in business with countries that are identified by the U.S. State Department as state sponsors of terrorism.

On January 1, 2006, at his second inauguration, Bill said:

“I entered office determined to be an activist Comptroller, by aggressively using the powers of my office to find new, creative ways to save taxpayers money and to put our resources to work for all New Yorkers,” Thompson said. “There is no better investment we can make than the investment we make in our communities.”

As custodian and investment advisor to the City’s $100 billion Pension Funds, he has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in affordable housing and commercial real estate in New York City, helping to spur job opportunities and create tens of thousands of housing units and homes within the five boroughs.

He has demonstrated a serious commitment to fostering opportunities for women- and minority-owned firms to conduct business with New York City. He spearheaded the creation of the largest Emerging Managers program in the United States. With the approval of the Pension Funds, Bill authorized a $175 million allocation to a groundbreaking Emerging Managers program targeting first-time funds, particularly those managed and owned by women and members of minority groups. The Comptroller’s Office has since funded or made commitments to more than 90 emerging firms.

Thompson has regularly reported on wasteful spending practices and government inefficiency in hopes of ensuring the City gets the most for its money, and New Yorkers get the most our of City government. Overall, his audits have uncovered more than $193.6 million in savings.

Just during the last year, Comptroller Thompson found: the Department of Education had not been properly reporting all violent incidents in high schools and had not been effectively monitoring, tracking or documenting the provision of special education services; the Fire Department had not ensured that alarm inspections were performed in a timely manner; the HIV/AIDS Services Administration continued not to fully meet the needs of its clients; the Departments of Consumer affairs and Health & Mental Hygiene were not providing thorough oversight of the city’s carriage-horse industry; employees of the Department of Design and Construction were driving contractor-provided vehicles with suspended licenses; and, the Department of Consumer Affairs failed to collect as much as $28.3 million in fines over a six-year period.

Bill also secured investments to lure bank branches back into neighborhoods that desperately needed them He collaborated with City and State agencies to utilize hundreds of millions of dollars in City deposits to expand the Banking Development District program, helping to establish local bank branches in neighborhoods that traditionally had been excluded from access to capital, benefiting both residents and small business owners.

To help homeowners in the current mortgage crisis, Thompson created a “Foreclosure Prevention Helpline” within his office, and conducts workshops throughout the city focusing on homeownership and financial literacy.

Thompson continues to build on these accomplishments, working each day to use City resources to benefit all New Yorkers, to create jobs, to expand access to capital, to improve affordable housing, and to improve government.

“I will continue to fight for fairness and opportunity for all New Yorkers and to use the power of my office to keep our city strong,” he said at his 2005 inauguration. “Our city is and must remain a beacon for those who call New York City home, a compassionate home for the vulnerable, and a place where every single New Yorker has the means to realize their dreams and aspirations.”.