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 Michael
R. Bloomberg is the 108th Mayor of the City of New York. Born on February
14, 1942 in Boston and raised by middle-class parents in Medford, Massachusetts,
he was taught at an early age the values of hard work and civic responsibility.
He attended Johns Hopkins University, where he paid his tuition by taking
loans and working as a parking lot attendant during the summer. After college,
he went on to receive an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 1966, he was
hired by Salomon Brothers to work on Wall Street.
 He
quickly rose through the ranks at Salomon, where he eventually oversaw the
trading firm's information systems, which enabled him to gain a keen understanding
of the importance of technological innovation to a successful business.
In 1981, Salomon was acquired, and he was squeezed out by the merger. With
a vision of an information company that would use emerging technology to
bring transparency and efficiency to the buyers and sellers of financial
securities, he began a small start-up company called Bloomberg LP in 1981.
Today, Bloomberg LP has over 250,000 subscribers to its financial news and
information service. Headquartered in New York City, the company has 9,500
employees in more than 130 cities worldwide.
As his company grew, Michael Bloomberg started directing more of his attention
to philanthropy, donating his time and resources to many different causes.
He has sat on the boards of numerous charitable, cultural, and educational
institutions, including Johns Hopkins University, where, as chairman of
the board, he helped build the Bloomberg School of Public Health into one
of the world's leading institutions of public health research and training.
 Already
deeply involved in civic affairs, he officially entered public life in 2001,
when he entered the race for Mayor of the City of New York. His election
came just two months after the tragic attacks of 9/11, at a time when many
believed that crime would return, businesses would flee, and New York might
never recover. Instead, under Mayor Bloomberg’s forward-looking leadership,
and with his determination to build on the spirit of unity that defined
the city after the attacks, New York rebounded faster and stronger than
anyone expected.
 In
his first term, Mayor Bloomberg cut crime 20 percent; created jobs by supporting
small businesses; unleashed a building boom of affordable housing; expanded
parks and worked to revitalize the waterfront; implemented ambitious public
health strategies, including the successful ban on smoking in restaurants
and bars; expanded support for community arts organizations; and improved
the efficiency of government. In addition, fulfilling a campaign promise,
he won control of New York's schools from the broken Board of Education,
and began turning around the nation’s largest school district by injecting
standards into the classroom and holding schools accountable for success.
As a result, graduation rates have increased nearly 20 percent, and reading
and math scores have both risen to record levels.
 In
2005, Mayor Bloomberg was re-elected by a diverse coalition of support that
stretched across the political spectrum. In his second term, while balancing
the budget and driving unemployment to a record low, Mayor Bloomberg has
taken on a number of new challenges. He launched an innovative program to
combat poverty that encourages work and makes work pay. He’s undertaken
a far-reaching campaign to fight global warming and prepare New York for
an estimated million more residents by 2030. And as co-founder of a bipartisan
coalition of more than 200 mayors from every region of the country, Mayor
Bloomberg is working to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals
and off city streets.
Mayor Bloomberg is the father of two daughters, Emma and Georgina.
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