New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg attends the 2011 MoMA Party In The Garden Benefit Honoring Patricia Phelps De Cisneros, Mimi Haas, Jill Kraus, and Sharon Percy Rockefeller at The Museum of Modern Art.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2012
Broad St, Birmingham B1 2EA, England
Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City, looks on before delivering his speech to delegates on the last day of the Conservative party conference, in the International Convention Centre.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2012
City Hall Park, New York, NY 10007, United States
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks while standing with survivors and family members of gun violence at a press conference at City Hall.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2013
New York City, New York, United States
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks on long-term challenges facing the city following Superstorm Sandy.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2013
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks to the media outside the West Wing of the White House after meeting with Vice President Joe Biden.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2013
New York City, New York, United States
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg holds a large cup as he speaks to the media about the health impacts of sugar at Lucky's restaurant, which voluntarily adopted the large sugary drink ban.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2013
242 W 41st St, New York, NY 10036, United States
New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg speaks onstage during the Energy For Tomorrow Conference at The Times Center.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2013
New York City, New York, United States
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is photographed for Financial Times.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2013
Businessman and Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg is photographed for Time Magazine in September in Paris, France, and London, England.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2013
Businessman and Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg is photographed for Time Magazine in Paris, France, and London, England.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2013
Mayor of New York and businessman Michael Bloomberg is photographed for Time Magazine in Paris and London.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2008
London, United Kingdom
Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, at a press conference, in front of a portrait of Britain"s King George III, following a City of London Economic Roundtable discussion.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
1997
Michael Rubens Bloomberg, Candid shot, Bloomberg is standing in front of an indoor climbing wall with three instructors, Bloomberg is shaking hands with one of the instructors, ca 47 years of age.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
1997
Michael Rubens Bloomberg, Candid shot, Bloomberg, is climbing an indoor climbing wall, Side view, ca 47 years of age.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2001
Baltimore, MD 21218, United State
Michael Bloomberg speaking at the university’s 125th-anniversary dinner.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2015
705 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10014, United States
Former Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, speaks at the "Not One More" Event at Urban Zen.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2015
Washington, DC., United States
(L-R) Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Michael Bloomberg attend the Bloomberg & Vanity Fair cocktail reception following the 2015 WHCA Dinner at the residence of the French Ambassador.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2015
At Grand Central Terminal, 109 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017, United States
Former Mayor of New York City, Presenter Michael Bloomberg attends AFMDA Red Star Gala at The Grand Hyatt New York.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2016
Bloomberg speaking at the DNC
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2016
110 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10017, United States
Michael R. Bloomberg attends the 2016 Marfan Foundation HeARTworks Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2016
3601 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, United States
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gestures to the crowd as he walks on stage to deliver remarks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2016
3601 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, United States
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gestures to attendees after delivering remarks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2016
3601 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, United States
Michael Bloomberg delivers remarks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2018
New York City, New York City, United States
Mike Bloomberg, Founder, Bloomberg LP & Bloomberg Philanthropies and three-term Mayor of NYC, attends National Geographic's premiere screening
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2018
165 W 65th St, New York, NY 10023, United States
Michael Bloomberg attends the New York premiere of "Paris to Pittsburgh" hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies and RadicalMedia at Walter Reade Theater.
Gallery of Michael Bloomberg
2019
Bloomberg speaking at an Everytown for Gun Safety event.
Michael Rubens Bloomberg, Candid shot, Bloomberg is standing in front of an indoor climbing wall with three instructors, Bloomberg is shaking hands with one of the instructors, ca 47 years of age.
Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, at a press conference, in front of a portrait of Britain"s King George III, following a City of London Economic Roundtable discussion.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg attends the 2011 MoMA Party In The Garden Benefit Honoring Patricia Phelps De Cisneros, Mimi Haas, Jill Kraus, and Sharon Percy Rockefeller at The Museum of Modern Art.
Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City, looks on before delivering his speech to delegates on the last day of the Conservative party conference, in the International Convention Centre.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg holds a large cup as he speaks to the media about the health impacts of sugar at Lucky's restaurant, which voluntarily adopted the large sugary drink ban.
Outgoing Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg speaks at the opening ceremony of Four World Trade Center, the first tower to open at the original site of the World Trade Center.
(L-R) Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Michael Bloomberg attend the Bloomberg & Vanity Fair cocktail reception following the 2015 WHCA Dinner at the residence of the French Ambassador.
3601 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, United States
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gestures to the crowd as he walks on stage to deliver remarks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center.
3601 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19148, United States
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg gestures to attendees after delivering remarks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center.
American businessman Michael Bloomberg talks at a discussion at the America's Pledge launch event at the U.S. "We Are Still In" pavilion at the COP 23 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Georgina Bloomberg, Diana Taylor, Michael Bloomberg, and Emma Bloomberg attend the "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art Of The In-Between" Costume Institute Gala at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Christo, and Michael Bloomberg attend a pre-drinks reception ahead of the annual Serpentine Summer Party in partnership with Chanel at The Serpentine Sackler Gallery.
Michael Bloomberg, former New York City mayor and chief executive officer of Bloomberg L.P., arrives for a morning session of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference.
Michael Bloomberg attends the "Paris to Pittsburgh" film screening hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies and National Geographic at National Geographic Headquarters.
Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet
(New York Times bestseller is a manifesto on how the benef...)
New York Times bestseller is a manifesto on how the benefits of taking action on climate change are concrete, immediate, and immense. It explores climate change solutions that will make the world healthier and more prosperous, aiming to begin a new type of conversation on the issue that will spur bolder action by cities, businesses, and citizens - and even, someday, by Washington.
Michael Bloomberg is an American business magnate, engineer, philanthropist, politician, and author. Bloomberg served as the Mayor of New York City for three consecutive terms beginning with his first election in 2001. Afterward, the businessman and philanthropist devoted himself to combating the effects of climate change, before spending heavily in an unsuccessful attempt to claim the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
Background
Ethnicity:
Michael Bloomberg is of Russian Jewish descent. Michael's paternal grandfather, Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, was a Polish Jew immigrant from Russia, and his maternal grandfather, Max Rubens, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant from present-day Belarus.
Michael Bloomberg was born on February 14, 1942, at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in Brighton neighborhood, Boston, Massachusetts, the United States. He is a son of William Henry Bloomberg, an accountant for a dairy company, and Charlotte Bloomberg, a native of Jersey City, New Jersey, the United States.
The family lived in Allston, Massachusetts United States. When Michael was a two-year-child, the family moved to Brookline and then settled in Medford, a Boston suburb, where the boy was raised. He was raised in a middle-class home.
Education
Michael Bloomberg's drive to succeed, love of work, and passion for service began at a young age. When he was 12 years old he became one of the youngest Eagle Scouts in history. In Medford High School, he was the president of the slide rule club and a member of the debating society. He attended a college in Medford, Massachusetts, United States.
As to higher education, Michael studied electrical engineering and physics at Johns Hopkins University where he was a member of the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. To help pay his way through Johns Hopkins University, he worked in a parking lot and took out government loans. He graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.
Bloomberg continued his education at the Harvard Business School which he graduated from in 1966 and earned a Master of Business Administration degree.
In 1966, Bloomberg was hired by a Wall Street firm, Salomon Brothers, for an entry-level job. Bloomberg quickly rose through the ranks at Salomon, overseeing equity trading and sales before heading up the firm's information systems. He made partner with the firm in 1972 and became the head of equity trading and sales in 1976. In 1979, he transferred to the company's information systems division and was in charge of implementing computer technology in the firm's practice. The bank was bought by Phibro Corporation in 1981 and Bloomberg was laid off from his job and given a $10 million severance package.
It turned out to be a moment that would define the rest of his life. The next day, with the idea for a technology company that would bring greater transparency and fairness to the financial system, he launched a small startup in a one-room office, Innovative Market Systems, a financial-data service firm. The company proved to be a successful one and was renamed Bloomberg LP in 1987. Over the years it introduced several ancillary products like Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Message, and Bloomberg Tradebook. Bloomberg eventually left the position of CEO to pursue a political career. Today, Bloomberg LP is a global company that employs around 20,000 people in 120 countries.
While at the helm of his company, Bloomberg served on the boards of leading cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Central Park Conservancy, and the Jewish Museum, and he donated $100 million to Johns Hopkins University.
In 2001, Bloomberg, a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for Mayor of New York City as a member of the Republican Party ticket. Bloomberg funded much of his mayoral campaign himself, spending more than $68 million from his personal fortune (his reported net worth at the time was roughly $4.5 billion). He won the election and assumed office as the 108th Mayor of New York City on January 1, 2002, just weeks after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Calling himself a liberal Republican, Bloomberg said he was pro-choice and favored legalizing same-sex marriage. One of his most popular programs as mayor was establishing a 311 telephone line that put callers in contact with the city, allowing them to report crimes, trash problems, or anything else.
He ran for a second term in 2005 and spent almost $78 million on his campaign, exceeding the record of $74 million he spent on the previous election. He was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20 percent, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York. He was re-elected again in 2009. In April 2006, Bloomberg collaborated with Thomas Menino, Mayor of Boston, to form Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition that advocates for gun control. There were 15 mayors when the group was initially formed, which had grown to 855 mayors by the end of 2014.
During his tenure as mayor, from 2002 through 2013, Bloomberg brought his innovation-driven approach to city government. He turned around a broken public school system by raising standards and holding schools accountable for success. He spurred economic growth and record levels of job creation by revitalizing old industrial areas, spurring entrepreneurship, supporting small businesses, and strengthening key industries, including new media, film and television, bio-science, technology, and tourism. Mayor Bloomberg's economic policies helped New York City experience record-levels of private-sector job growth often in formerly depressed neighborhoods, even in the wake of the deep national recession.
Bloomberg stepped down from his political duties in January 2014 and spent that year focusing on his philanthropic pursuits before returning as CEO of Bloomberg LP Democrat Bill de Blasio took his place as New York City's mayor.
During the 2016 presidential election, Bloomberg considered running as a third party independent, fearing that the candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties were too extreme and would turn off many voters, before he officially reneged on pursuing the matter in March 2016.
A vocal opponent of Trump, Bloomberg pledged to spend at least $80 million to defeat Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections. That year he reregistered as a Democrat, raising speculation that he would run for president in 2020. Although Bloomberg announced in March 2019 that he would not seek the presidency, in November he officially entered the race. Despite spending more than $500 million, he struggled to gain support, especially after poor performances in two debates. In March 2020 he ended his campaign and announced his support for Joe Biden.
Prior to entering politics, the businessman published a memoir, Bloomberg on Bloomberg, in 1997. Twenty years later he co-authored Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet, with Carl Pope. In 2019 he was the subject of a biography by journalist Eleanor Randolph, The Many Lives of Michael Bloomberg, which explores his rise from modest origins to the pinnacle of the investment banking world and his unexpected political success.
(The remarkable story of how Michael Bloomberg created a m...)
1997
Religion
Michael Bloomberg's parents were Jewish, and he even had a Bar Mitzvah. But today Bloomberg is more secular, than Jewish. He attends synagogue mainly during the High Holidays. As to his daughters, they were raised Jewish.
Politics
At the beginning of his political career, Michael Bloomberg was a Democrat. In 2001, he switched to the Republican Party to run for mayor post. In 2007, he became Independent. In 2018, he switched to being a Democrat again.
On July 27, 2016, Bloomberg spoke at the Democratic National Convention in support of Hillary Clinton, speaking honestly about how he came to endorse her, as well as his approach to politics.
"When I enter the voting booth each time, I look at the candidate, not the party label," Bloomberg stated in his prime-time speech. "There are times when I disagree with Hillary Clinton. But let me tell you, whatever our disagreements may be, I've come here to say: We must put them aside for the good of our country. And we must unite around the candidate who can defeat a dangerous demagogue," he said, referring to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Some of the Michael Bloombergs’ political views parallel those of either the Democratic or the Republican party. For example, he supports abortion rights, gay marriage, gun control, and amnesty for illegal immigrants. As to economics, foreign, and domestic issues, Bloomberg remains conservative. He was against a timeline for withdrawal from the Iraq War and criticized its adherents.
Views
As an individual who is passionate about giving back to society, Michael is the founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies which encompasses all of his charitable activities, focusing on five areas: the environment, public health, the arts, government innovation, and education. Bloomberg has pledged to donate the majority of his wealth.
Bloomberg's passion for public health led to ambitious new strategies that became national models, including a ban on smoking in all indoor workplaces, as well as at parks and beaches. Life expectancy grew by 36 months during Mayor Bloomberg's twelve years in office. He launched cutting-edge anti-poverty efforts, including the Young Men's Initiative and the Center for Economic Opportunity, whose ground-breaking programs have been replicated across the country. As a result, New York City's welfare rolls fell 25 percent, and New York was the only big city in the country not to experience an increase in poverty between the 2000 Census and 2012.
He also created innovative plans to fight climate change and promote sustainable development, which helped cut the city's carbon footprint by 19 percent. His belief that America's mayors and business leaders can help effect change in Washington led him to launch national bi-partisan coalitions to combat illegal guns, reform immigration, and invest in infrastructure. He was a strong champion of the city's cultural community, expanding support for artists and arts organizations and helping to bring more than 100 permanent public art commissions to all five boroughs.
Quotations:
"The public is mad, frustrated, but what the public wants is progress."
"I never lie, so if somebody asked me a question, I told them."
"I am what I am and, you know, I’m a very lucky guy."
"I know how to make decisions and stand up to the criticism every day."
"And because no matter who you are, if you believe in yourself and your dream, New York will always be the place for you."
"I’ve got the greatest job in the world. There’s no other job in government where cause and effect is so tightly coupled where you can make a difference every day in so many different ways and in so many different people’s lives. It’s a great challenge."
Membership
While he was studying at John Hopkins University, Bloomberg joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. Bloomberg is also a member of Kappa Beta Phi.
Phi Kappa Psi
,
United States
Kappa Beta Phi
,
United States
Personality
Bloomberg prefers to hire highly dedicated workaholics like himself. He has said he loves Sunday nights because he gets to go to work the next day. As mayor, he took a salary of $1 a year.
His favorite book as a teenager was Johnny Tremain, the novel by Esther Forbes about the poor boy who becomes a spy for Paul Revere. He read it, he has said, "at least 50 times."
Bloomberg holds a commercial pilot license and flies his own Agusta A109S helicopter. He’s on the waiting list to purchase an AgustaWestland AW609 Tiltrotor, a hybrid helicopter-plane that will be available sometime this year. It’s estimated to cost between $5 million and $30 million. In January 1976, he piloted a helicopter that was on fire, touching down on a tiny island off Connecticut. He doesn’t like movies and thinks that baseball is boring.
He smoked until he was in his early 30s. He quit by imagining his worst enemy outliving him.
Quotes from others about the person
"The Bloomberg who came into office as the anti-politician, promising to transform city government, has been transformed himself. Some of us liked him precisely because his wealth insulated him from the kind of horse-trading that diminished his predecessors. But seven years later, Bloomberg has not only proved himself to be a master politician, as hungry for power as anyone we’ve ever seen, but he’s also ended up putting nearly everyone who deals with the city deep into his political debt." - Wayne Barrett
Interests
Politicians
Hillary Clinton
Writers
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Sport & Clubs
golf
Connections
Michael Bloomberg married Susan Brown in 1975. The couple had two daughters and divorced in 1993. He is currently in a relationship with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Awards
Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets,
United States
Yale School of Management, 2003
Yale School of Management, 2003
The Barnard Medal of Distinction,
United States
Barnard College's highest honor, 2008
Barnard College's highest honor, 2008
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal,
United States
in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York, 2008
in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York, 2008
Healthy Communities Leadership Award,
United States
from Leadership for Healthy Communities for his policies and programs that increase access to healthful foods and physical activity options in the city, 2009
from Leadership for Healthy Communities for his policies and programs that increase access to healthful foods and physical activity options in the city, 2009