Michael Rubens Bloomberg, an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author, was born on February 14, 1942. He is Bloomberg L.P.'s co-founder, CEO, and controlling owner. Between 2002 to 2013, he had three terms as mayor of New York City. He also ran for president of the United States in the 2020 Democratic primary. Since June 2022, he has presided over the Defence Innovation Board, an impartial advisory body that advises the US Department of Defence on issues related to digital transformation, software, data, and artificial intelligence. Bloomberg attended both Harvard Business School and Johns Hopkins University after growing up in Medford, Massachusetts. Before starting his own business in 1981, he spent his early years in the financial services industry working for Salomon Brothers. The business at question is Bloomberg L.P., a provider of financial software, information, and media best known for its Bloomberg Terminal. The following twenty years were spent by Bloomberg as its chairman and CEO. With an estimated net worth of US$94.5 billion as of April 2023, Forbes placed him as the seventh-richest person in the world. Bloomberg has donated $8.2 billion to philanthropic causes since taking the pledge.
In 2001, Bloomberg was chosen to serve as New York City's 108th mayor. He was elected again in 2005 and 2009, serving three terms in a row. Bloomberg created a technocratic management style by pursuing socially liberal and economically conservative ideas. When he served as mayor of New York, Bloomberg created public charter schools, renovated urban infrastructure, and backed campaigns for public health, environmental preservation, and gun control. He also oversaw a citywide rezoning that allowed for extensive and broad new commercial and residential building in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Over the course of his three stints as mayor, Bloomberg is seen as having had a significant impact on New York City's politics, economic community, and cultural landscape. Additionally, he received harsh criticism for expanding the city's stop and frisk programme, support for which he later withdrew before declaring his bid for president in 2020.
He briefly embraced the role of a full-time philanthropist before returning to Bloomberg L.P. before the end of 2014. Bloomberg formally began his campaign for the Democratic presidential candidature in the 2020 election in November of that year. His candidature came to an end in March 2020 with only 61 delegates secured. Bloomberg established the record for the most costly U.S. presidential primary campaign with his $935 million self-funded campaign.
Early Life & Education
Bloomberg was conceived on February 14, 1942, at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Boston's Brighton neighbourhood. His parents were Charlotte (née Rubens) and William Henry Bloomberg (1909–2011), both of whom worked as bookkeepers for dairy companies. William Henry was honoured with the naming of the Bloomberg Centre at the Harvard Business School. Bloomberg belongs to the Manhattan Temple Emanu-El and comes from a Jewish background. Rabbi Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, Bloomberg's paternal grandfather, was a Polish Jew. Max Rubens, Bloomberg's maternal grandpa, was a Lithuanian Jew who immigrated to present-day Belarus, and his maternal grandmother was a Lithuanian Jew who was born in New York.
Before moving in the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts, where Bloomberg resided until he received his college degree, the family lived in Allston until Bloomberg was two years old, then moved to Brookline for two years. When Bloomberg was twelve years old, he earned the Eagle Scout rank. In 1960, he earned his high school diploma from Medford. He later enrolled at Johns Hopkins University and became a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity there. He built the blue jay mascot suit for the institution there. He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering in 1964. He earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School in 1966.
Business Career
In 1966, Salomon Brothers, a big Wall Street investment bank, hired Bloomberg for a $9,000-per-year position. He was eventually given a promotion by Salomon Brothers to the equity desk. In 1972, Bloomberg joined Salomon Brothers as a general partner, where he oversaw stock trading and later systems development. When Phibro Corporation acquired Salomon Brothers in 1981, the new leadership dismissed Bloomberg and gave him a $10 million stock payment. Based on his belief that Wall Street would pay more for high-quality business information delivered instantly on computer terminals in a variety of usable formats, Bloomberg founded Innovative Market Systems (IMS) with the money he received from Phibro after designing internal computerised financial systems for Salomon. The business supplied Wall Street businesses specialised computer terminals that provided real-time market data, financial computations, and other analytics. In December 1982, the terminal—originally known as the Market Master terminal—was made available for purchase.
Lex Fenwick and subsequently Daniel L. Doctoroff succeeded Bloomberg as CEO after the latter served as deputy mayor under the former before leaving to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York City. After serving his final term as mayor of New York City, Bloomberg worked as a philanthropist full-time during his first eight months after leaving office. He revealed in the fall of 2014 that he will return to Bloomberg L.P. as CEO at the end of the year, following Doctoroff, who had been in charge of the business since February 2008. To run for president in 2019, Bloomberg resigned from his position as CEO of Bloomberg L.P.
Mayoral Elections
Bloomberg declared on September 13, 2013, that he would not support any of the potential successors. He said on his radio programme, "I don't want to do anything that makes it difficult for the future mayor. And for that reason, among others, I've chosen not to support anyone in the race. He said, "I want to make sure that person is ready to succeed, to take what we've done and build on that." For supporting Christine Quinn and Joe Lhota as their preferred candidates in the Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively, Bloomberg applauded The New York Times. Lhota won the Republican primary, and Quinn finished third in the Democratic primary. Bill de Blasio's campaign tactics were criticised by Bloomberg, who originally labelled them "racist" before subsequently downplaying and partially retracting his statements.
Bloomberg declared his decision to not run for president in 2020 on March 5, 2019. He urged the Democratic Party instead to "nominate a Democrat who will be in the strongest position to defeat Donald Trump." Bloomberg changed his mind, though, after becoming disenchanted with the Democratic field. On November 24, 2019, he formally began running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
Bloomberg did not take any contributions for his campaign; instead, he self-funded it with his personal wealth.
Bloomberg attacked Trump's management of the COVID-19 outbreak and the American economy during his speech on the last night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, asking, "Would you rehire or work for someone who led your firm into the ground? Who always acts in their own best interests, no matter the cost to the business, whose careless actions put you in risk, and who spends more time tweeting than working? Why in the world would we ever re-engage Donald Trump for another four years if the answer is no?