Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023.[1] He served as the mayor of New York City for three terms from 2002 to 2013 and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States. He has served as chair of the Defense Innovation Board, an independent advisory board that provides recommendations on artificial intelligence, software, data and digital modernization to the United States Department of Defense, since June 2022.
For other uses, see Bloomberg (disambiguation).
Michael Bloomberg
Mark Sirangelo
Democratic (before 2001, 2018–present)
Republican (2001–2007)
Independent (2007–2018)
Diana Taylor (2000–present)
2, including Georgina
- Politician
- philanthropist
- author
- businessman
- stock trader
Bloomberg grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, and graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. He began his career at the securities brokerage firm Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981. That company, Bloomberg L.P., is a financial information, software and media firm that is known for its Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO. As of April 2024, Forbes ranked him as the thirteenth-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$106.2 billion.[2] Since signing The Giving Pledge, Bloomberg has given away $8.2 billion to philanthropic causes.
Bloomberg was elected the 108th mayor of New York City in 2001. He held office for three consecutive terms, winning re-election in 2005 and 2009. Pursuing socially liberal and fiscally moderate policies, Bloomberg developed a technocratic managerial style.[3]
As the mayor of New York, Bloomberg established public charter schools, rebuilt urban infrastructure, and supported gun control, public health initiatives, and environmental protections. He also led a rezoning of large areas of the city, which facilitated massive and widespread new commercial and residential construction after the September 11 attacks. Bloomberg is considered to have had far-reaching influence on the politics, business sector, and culture of New York City during his three terms as mayor. He has also faced significant criticism for the city's stop and frisk program, support for which he reversed with an apology before his 2020 presidential run.[4]
After a brief stint as a full-time philanthropist, he re-assumed the position of CEO at Bloomberg L.P. by the end of 2014. In November 2019, four months before Super Tuesday, Bloomberg officially launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 election. He ended his campaign in March 2020, after having won only 61 delegates. Bloomberg self-funded $935 million[5] for his candidacy, which set the record for the most expensive U.S. presidential primary campaign.
Bloomberg was born on February 14, 1942, at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, to William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), a bookkeeper for a dairy company,[6] and Charlotte (née Rubens) Bloomberg (1909–2011).[7][8] The Bloomberg Center at the Harvard Business School was named in William Henry's honor.[9][10] Bloomberg's family is Jewish,[11] and he is a member of the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.[12] Bloomberg's paternal grandfather, Rabbi Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, was a Polish Jew.[13][14] Bloomberg's maternal grandfather, Max Rubens, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant from present-day Belarus,[15][16] and his maternal grandmother was born in New York to Lithuanian Jewish parents.[17]
The family lived in Allston until Bloomberg was two years old, followed by Brookline, Massachusetts, for two years, finally settling in the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts, where he lived until after he graduated from college.[18]
Bloomberg became an Eagle Scout when he was twelve years old.[19][20][21] He graduated from Medford High School in 1960.[22] He went on to attend Johns Hopkins University, where he joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. While there, he constructed the blue jay costume for the university's mascot.[23][24] He graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering.[25] In 1966, he graduated from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.[26][27][28]
Bloomberg is a member of Kappa Beta Phi and Tau Beta Pi.[29] He wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, with help from Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler.[30][31]
Personal life
Family and relationships
In 1975, Bloomberg married Susan Elizabeth Barbara Brown, a British national from Yorkshire, United Kingdom.[312] They have two daughters: Emma (born c. 1979) and Georgina (born 1983), who were featured on Born Rich, a 2003 documentary film about the children of the extremely wealthy. Bloomberg divorced Brown in 1993, but he has said she remains his "best friend."[291] Since 2000, Bloomberg has lived with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.[313][314][315][316]
Bloomberg's younger sister, Marjorie Tiven, has been commissioner of the New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol, since February 2002.[317]
Relation with the Sackler family
During the opioid epidemic in the United States, Mortimer Sackler — son of a co-founder of the company, Purdue Pharma, and a member of its board, met with Bloomberg to "seek his help and guidance on the current issues we are facing". Purdue’s head of communications, Josephine Martin, added "Any positive news or ability to get our side out is through Bloomberg. We have given them exclusives and they have treated us very well." Bloomberg also advised Mortimer Sackler to consult Stu Loeser to help manage communications.[318][319]
Religion
Although he attended Hebrew school, had a bar mitzvah, and his family kept a kosher kitchen, Bloomberg today lives a mostly secular religious life, attending synagogue mainly during the High Holidays and a Passover Seder with his sister, Marjorie Tiven.[320] Neither of his daughters had bat mitzvahs, nor does either daughter follow a religiously Jewish lifestyle, such as abiding kosher dietary restrictions or keeping the Jewish sabbath.[320]
Public image and lifestyle
Throughout his business career, Bloomberg has made numerous statements which have been considered by some to be insulting, derogatory, sexist or misogynistic. When working on Wall Street in the 1960s and 1970s, Bloomberg claimed in his 1997 autobiography, he had "a girlfriend in every city".[321][322] On various occasions, Bloomberg allegedly commented "I'd do her", regarding certain women, some of whom were coworkers or employees. Bloomberg later said that by "do", he meant that he would have a personal relationship with the woman.[44] Bloomberg's staff told the New York Times that he now regrets having made "disrespectful" remarks concerning women.[44]
During his term as mayor, he lived at his own home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan instead of Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence.[323] In 2013, he owned 13 properties in various countries around the world, including a $20 million Georgian mansion in Southampton, New York.[324][325] In 2015, he acquired 4 Cheyne Walk, a historical property in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, which once belonged to writer George Eliot.[326] Bloomberg and his daughters own houses in Bermuda and stay there frequently.[327][328]
Bloomberg stated that during his mayoralty, he rode the New York City Subway on a daily basis, particularly in the commute from his 79th Street home to his office at City Hall. An August 2007 story in The New York Times stated that he was often seen chauffeured by two New York Police Department-owned SUVs to an express train station to avoid having to change from the local to the express trains on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line.[329] He supported the construction of the 7 Subway Extension and the Second Avenue Subway; in December 2013, Bloomberg took a ceremonial ride on a train to the new 34th Street station to celebrate a part of his legacy as mayor.[330][331]
During his tenure as mayor, Bloomberg made cameos playing himself in the films The Adjustment Bureau and New Year's Eve, as well as in episodes of 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Wife, and two episodes of Law & Order.[332]
Bloomberg is a private pilot.[333] He owns six airplanes: three Dassault Falcon 900s, a Beechcraft B300, a Pilatus PC-24, and a Cessna 182 Skylane. Bloomberg also owns two helicopters: an AW109 and an Airbus helicopter[334] and as of 2012 was near the top of the waiting list for an AW609 tiltrotor aircraft.[335] In his youth he was a licensed amateur radio operator, was proficient in Morse code, and built ham radios.[336]
Bloomberg's fortune is managed by Willett Advisors, an investment firm that serves as his family office[337]
Awards and honors
Bloomberg has received honorary degrees from Tufts University (2007),[338] Bard College (2007),[339] Rockefeller University (2007),[340] the University of Pennsylvania (2008),[341] Fordham University (2009),[342][343] Williams College (2014),[344][345] Harvard University (2014),[346] the University of Michigan (2016),[347] Villanova University (2017) [348] and Washington University in St. Louis (2019).[349] Bloomberg was the speaker for Princeton University's 2011 baccalaureate service.[350]
On May 27, 2010, Bloomberg delivered the commencement speech at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University.[351] In addition, he was invited to and delivered guest remarks for the Johns Hopkins Class of 2020. Other notable guest speakers during the virtual ceremony included Reddit co-founder and Commencement speaker Alexis Ohanian; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force; and senior class president Pavan Patel[352]
Bloomberg has received the Yale School of Management's Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets (2003);[353] Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Ehud Barak (2004);[354][355] Barnard College's Barnard Medal of Distinction (2008);[356] the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Leadership for Healthy Communities' Healthy Communities Leadership Award (2009);[357] and the Jefferson Awards Foundation's U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official (2010).[358] He was the inaugural laureate of the annual Genesis Prize for Jewish values in 2013,[359] and donated the $1 million prize money to a global competition, the Genesis Generation Challenge, to identify young adults' big ideas to better the world.[360]
Bloomberg was named the 39th most influential person in the world in the 2007 and 2008 Time 100.[361] In 2010, Vanity Fair ranked him #7 in its "Vanity Fair 100" list of influential figures.[362]
In 2014, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Bloomberg an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his "prodigious entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors, and the many ways in which they have benefited the United Kingdom and the U.K.-U.S. special relationship."[363]
Books and other works
Bloomberg, with Matthew Winkler, wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, published in 1997 by Wiley.[364] A second edition was released in 2019, ahead of Bloomberg's presidential run.[365][366] Bloomberg and former Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope co-authored Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet (2017), published by St. Martin's Press; the book appeared on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list.[367][368] Bloomberg has written a number of op-eds in The New York Times about various issues, including an op-ed supporting state and local efforts to fight climate change (2017),[369] an op-ed about his donation of $1.8 billion in financial aid for college students and support for need-blind admission policies (2018);[370] an op-ed supporting a ban on flavored e-cigarettes (2019);[371] and an op-ed supporting policies to reduce economic inequality (2020).[372]