John Wendell Thompson was born on 24 April 1949, in Fort Dix, New Jersey, USA, and is a businessman best known for being the current chairman of Microsoft and the CEO of Virtual Instruments. He’s also worked with companies like Symantec and IBM. The various investments he’s made and positions he’s occupied in his life have raised his net worth to where it is now.
How rich is John W. Thompson? As of early-2016, sources estimate that his net worth is at $250 million, mostly earned through his success in the business world. He is part of the board of numerous high profile organizations and he also owns a 20% share of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team, the Golden State Warriors.
John W. Thompson Net Worth $250 Million
John attended John F. Kennedy High School in Florida and then went to Florida A&M University, graduating with a degree in Business Administration during 1971. By 1981, he received his master’s degree from MIT Sloan School of Management. From this period after college and even beyond finishing his master’s degree, he spent 28 years with the IBM Corporation. He climbed the corporate ladder and worked in various parts of the company, including sales, marketing and software development. He became senior executive and then general manager of IBM Americas before becoming part of IBM’s Worldwide Management Council. He eventually left the company to become Symantec’s CEO in 1999.
While working at Symantec, Thompson was given the opportunity to become part of the National Infrastructure Advisory Committee, which position on the committee was vital to the development of infrastructure in the United States. John was reported to have a total compensation of $71.84 million as CEO and his net worth was rising significantly. By 2009, he retired from his position as CEO. After leaving Symantec, many thought that Thompson would go towards being an investor but surprised many when he became the Chief Executive for technology start-up, Virtual Instruments.
This was also the time, in 2005, when Thompson purchased a 20% share of the Golden State Warriors along with a few other businessmen, all of whom became part of Bay Area Basketball Partners, L.L.C.
From this point, and even during his time as CEO, John had the opportunity to become part of the board for various companies. These include Microsoft, Seagate Technology, Liquid Robotics, Teach for America, Florida University A&M Cluster among others. He received the Pioneer Leader Business Award from Silicon Valley thanks to his achievements in business and education.
Starting from 2014, Thompson would succeed Bill Gates to become chairman of Microsoft, and would later conduct the search for Microsoft’s next CEO, wherein Satya Nadella was chosen. Many believe that the Thompson and Nadella partnership could be one of the best moves the company has made in a while. According to some sources, John tackled similar problems to that of Microsoft while he handled Symantec in the past.
John is active in politics and was a big supporter during the 2008 campaign of Barack Obama. He was under consideration for the position of Secretary of Commerce by the president himself. Eventually in 2009, he became part of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
Thompson likes to keeps his personal life private, out of th public spotlight.
