Mr. John W. Thompson was named independent Chairman of the Board of Directors for Microsoft Corporation on February 4, 2014.; a role previously held by company founder Bill Gates. Thompson first joined Microsoft’s board in February 2012. According to a release from Microsoft, Gates stepped down in order to give more attention to other projects.
Mr. Thompson currently serves as CEO of Virtual Instruments, which offers products that ensure the performance and availability of applications deployed in virtualized and private cloud computing environments. He served for 10 years as chief executive of Symantec, the computer security company. Prior to that, he spent 28 years at IBM — in sales, marketing, and software development — before finally serving as general manager of the Americas business unit.
During his tenure at Symantec, Mr. Thompson had to tackle a number of issues that parallel Microsoft’s predicament. Both company’s roots are in consumer and business software. Both also saw their early success erode when their markets started to change. Thompson will be able to draw on those lessons — the successes and the failures — when advising Satya Nadella, a first-time chief executive who previously held top positions in Microsoft’s online, business, and cloud divisions.
Mr. Thompson, one of the few African-Americans executives in the technology industry, grew up in South Florida as the son of a teacher and postal worker. He received a scholarship to play clarinet in a college band in Missouri before he transferred to Florida A&M to study business. He received his MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management in 1983.
Mr. Thompson was a strong supporter of President Barack Obama’s campaign during the 2008 election cycle. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appointed Thompson to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the cause of the 2008 financial collapse and make recommendations to Congress on steps to avoid or mitigate the impact of a re-occurrence.
Mr. Thompson is a part owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. He is an active investor in early-stage companies and currently serves on the board of directors of Liquid Robotics, the world’s first wave-powered autonomous platform, and DOMO, an emerging platform for business intelligence.