103 Facts About Michael Bloomberg

1.

Michael Rubens Bloomberg was born on February 14,1942 and is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author.

2.

Michael Bloomberg served as the mayor of New York City for three terms from 2002 to 2013, and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

3.

Michael Bloomberg has served as chair of the Defense Innovation Board, an independent advisory board that provides recommendations on artificial intelligence, software, data and digital modernization to the United States Department of Defense, since June 2022.

4.

Michael Bloomberg began his career at the securities brokerage Salomon Brothers before forming his own company in 1981.

5.

Michael Bloomberg spent the next twenty years as its chairman and CEO.

6.

Michael Bloomberg was elected the 108th mayor of New York City in 2001.

7.

Michael Bloomberg held office for three consecutive terms, winning re-election in 2005 and 2009.

8.

Michael Bloomberg has faced significant criticism for his expansion of the city's stop and frisk program, support for which he reversed with an apology before his 2020 presidential run.

9.

In November 2019, Michael Bloomberg officially launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in the 2020 election.

10.

Michael Bloomberg ended his campaign in March 2020, after having won only 61 delegates.

11.

Michael Bloomberg's family is Jewish, and he is a member of the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.

12.

Michael Bloomberg's paternal grandfather, Rabbi Alexander "Elick" Michael Bloomberg, was a Polish Jew.

13.

Michael Bloomberg's maternal grandfather, Max Rubens, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant from present-day Belarus, and his maternal grandmother was born in New York to Lithuanian Jewish parents.

14.

The family lived in Allston until Michael Bloomberg was two years old, followed by Brookline, Massachusetts, for two years, finally settling in the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts, where he lived until after he graduated from college.

15.

Michael Bloomberg became an Eagle Scout when he was twelve years old.

16.

Michael Bloomberg went on to attend Johns Hopkins University, where he joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi.

17.

Michael Bloomberg graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering.

18.

Michael Bloomberg is a member of Kappa Beta Phi and Tau Beta Pi.

19.

Michael Bloomberg wrote an autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, with help from Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matthew Winkler.

20.

In 1973, Michael Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers, a large Wall Street investment bank, where he headed equity trading and, later, systems development.

21.

Michael Bloomberg sold customized computer terminals that delivered real-time market data, financial calculations and other analytics to Wall Street firms.

22.

Michael Bloomberg moved from 142nd to 17th in the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in only two years.

23.

Michael Bloomberg assumed office as the 108th mayor of New York City on January 1,2002.

24.

Michael Bloomberg won re-election in 2005 and again in 2009.

25.

Michael Bloomberg stated that he wanted public education reform to be the legacy of his first term and addressing poverty to be the legacy of his second.

26.

Michael Bloomberg chose to apply a statistical, metrics-based management approach to city government, and granted departmental commissioners broad autonomy in their decision-making.

27.

Michael Bloomberg increased city funding for the new development of affordable housing through a plan that created and preserved an estimated 160,000 affordable homes in the city.

28.

Michael Bloomberg created bicycle lanes, required chain restaurants to post calorie counts, and pedestrianized much of Times Square.

29.

In 2010, Michael Bloomberg supported the then-controversial Islamic complex near Ground Zero.

30.

Michael Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement to succeed him in the 2001 election.

31.

Michael Bloomberg received 75 percent of the vote in Staten Island.

32.

Michael Bloomberg was re-elected mayor in November 2005 by a margin of 20 percent, the widest margin ever for a Republican mayor of New York City.

33.

In late 2004 or early 2005, Michael Bloomberg gave the Independence Party of New York $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for his re-election campaign.

34.

Ognibene accused Michael Bloomberg of betraying Republican Party ideals, a feeling echoed by others.

35.

Michael Bloomberg opposed the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States.

36.

Civil libertarians such as former New York Civil Liberties Union Director Norman Siegel and New York Civil Rights Coalition Executive Director Michael Bloomberg Meyers joined with local politicians to protest the process as undermining the democratic process.

37.

Michael Bloomberg's opponent was Democratic and Working Families Party nominee Bill Thompson, who had been New York City Comptroller for the past eight years and before that, president of the New York City Board of Education.

38.

Michael Bloomberg defeated Thompson by a vote of 51 percent to 46 percent.

39.

Former New York State Senator Martin Connor contended that because the Michael Bloomberg donations were made to an Independence Party housekeeping account rather than to an account meant for current campaigns, this was a violation of campaign finance laws.

40.

On September 13,2013, Michael Bloomberg announced that he would not endorse any of the candidates to succeed him.

41.

Michael Bloomberg praised The New York Times for its endorsement of Christine Quinn and Joe Lhota as their favorite candidates in the Democratic and Republican primaries, respectively.

42.

Michael Bloomberg was frequently mentioned as a possible centrist candidate for the presidential elections in 2008 and 2012, as well as for governor of New York in 2010 or vice-president in 2008.

43.

Michael Bloomberg eventually declined to seek all of these offices.

44.

On January 23,2016, it was reported that Michael Bloomberg was again considering a presidential run, as an independent candidate in the 2016 election, if Bernie Sanders got the Democratic party nomination.

45.

Michael Bloomberg supporters believed that Michael Bloomberg could run as a centrist and capture many voters who were dissatisfied with the likely Democratic and Republican nominees.

46.

In July 2016, Michael Bloomberg delivered a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in which he called Hillary Clinton "the right choice".

47.

Michael Bloomberg warned of the dangers a Donald Trump presidency would pose.

48.

Michael Bloomberg wants you to believe that erecting trade barriers will bring back good jobs.

49.

On October 10,2018, Michael Bloomberg announced that he had returned to the Democratic party.

50.

On March 5,2019, Michael Bloomberg had announced that he would not run for president in 2020.

51.

Michael Bloomberg officially launched his campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination on November 24,2019.

52.

Michael Bloomberg self-funded his campaign from his personal fortune, and did not accept campaign contributions.

53.

Michael Bloomberg's campaign suffered from his lackluster performance in two televised debates.

54.

Two days later, Michael Bloomberg announced that there were three women who had made complaints concerning him, and added that he would release any of the three if they request him to do so.

55.

Michael Bloomberg's campaign blanketed the country with campaign advertisements on broadcast and cable television, the Internet, and radio, as well as direct mail.

56.

Michael Bloomberg spent heavily on campaign operations that grew to 200 field offices and more than 2,400 paid campaign staffers.

57.

Michael Bloomberg suspended his campaign on March 4,2020, after a disappointing Super Tuesday in which he won only American Samoa, and subsequently endorsed Biden.

58.

Michael Bloomberg donated $18 million to the Democratic National Committee and publicly planned a "massive spending blitz" to support Biden's campaign.

59.

In February 2022, Michael Bloomberg was nominated to chair the Defense Innovation Board, being sworn in on June 22,2022.

60.

Michael Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat until 2001, when he switched to the Republican Party to run for mayor.

61.

Michael Bloomberg switched to an independent in 2007 and registered again as a Democrat in October 2018.

62.

Michael Bloomberg endorsed Barack Obama's re-election in 2012, endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

63.

Michael Bloomberg launched an unsuccessful effort to ban on certain large sugary sodas at restaurants and food service establishments in the city.

64.

Michael Bloomberg supported the Iraq War and opposed creating a timeline for withdrawing troops.

65.

Michael Bloomberg has sometimes embraced the use of surveillance in efforts to deter crime and protect against terrorism.

66.

Michael Bloomberg advocates reversing many of the Trump tax cuts.

67.

Michael Bloomberg opposes a wealth tax, saying that it would likely be found unconstitutional.

68.

Michael Bloomberg has proposed more stringent financial regulations that include tougher oversight for big banks, a financial transactions tax, and stronger consumer protections.

69.

Michael Bloomberg supported decreasing estate-tax threshold to collect more estate taxes and close tax avoidance schemes.

70.

Michael Bloomberg continues to support the arts through his foundation.

71.

At the national level, Michael Bloomberg has consistently pushed for transitioning the United States' energy mix from fossil fuels to clean energy.

72.

In July 2011, Michael Bloomberg Philanthropies donated $50 million to Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, allowing the campaign to expand its efforts to shut down coal-fired power plants from 15 states to 45 states.

73.

In early June 2019, Michael Bloomberg pledged $500 million to reduce climate impacts and shut remaining coal-fired power plants by 2030 via the new Beyond Carbon initiative.

74.

Michael Bloomberg Philanthropies awarded a $6 million grant to the Environmental Defense Fund in support of strict regulations on fracking in the 14 states with the heaviest natural gas production.

75.

In January 2015, Michael Bloomberg led Michael Bloomberg Philanthropies in a $48-million partnership with the Heising-Simons family to launch the Clean Energy Initiative.

76.

Since 2010, Michael Bloomberg has taken an increasingly global role on environmental issues.

77.

Michael Bloomberg serves as the president of the board of C40 Cities.

78.

In September 2014, Michael Bloomberg convened with Ban and global leaders at the UN Climate Summit to announce definite action to fight climate change in 2015.

79.

Michael Bloomberg resigned in November 2019, in the run-up to his presidential campaign.

80.

In May 2019, Michael Bloomberg announced a 2020 Midwestern Collegiate Climate Summit in Washington University in St Louis with the aim to bring together leaders from Midwestern universities, local government and the private sector to reduce climate impacts in the region.

81.

In 2016, Michael Bloomberg joined Vice President Joe Biden for the institute's formal launch, embracing Biden's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative, which seeks to find a cure for cancer through national coordination of government and private sector resources.

82.

Michael Bloomberg credited the museum with sparking his intellectual curiosity as a patron and student during his youth in Medford, Massachusetts.

83.

In December 2011, Michael Bloomberg Philanthropies launched a partnership with online ticket search engine SeatGeek to connect artists with new audiences.

84.

In 2013, Michael Bloomberg announced the Mayors Challenge competition to drive innovation in American cities.

85.

Michael Bloomberg has been a longtime donor to global tobacco control efforts.

86.

In Michael Bloomberg is the co-founder of Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group.

87.

Michael Bloomberg endowed his hometown synagogue, Temple Shalom, which was renamed for his parents as the William and Charlotte Michael Bloomberg Jewish Community Center of Medford.

88.

Michael Bloomberg hosted the Global Business Forum in 2017, during the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly; the gathering featured international CEOs, heads of state, and other prominent speakers.

89.

In 2009 Michael Bloomberg met with other billionaires such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey to address issues ranging from the environment, health care and concerns over population growth.

90.

In 1975, Michael Bloomberg married Susan Elizabeth Barbara Brown, a British national from Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

91.

Michael Bloomberg divorced Brown in 1993, but he has said she remains his "best friend".

92.

Since 2000, Michael Bloomberg has lived with former New York state banking superintendent Diana Taylor.

93.

When working on Wall Street in the 1960s and 1970s, Michael Bloomberg claimed in his 1997 autobiography, he had "a girlfriend in every city".

94.

On various occasions, Michael Bloomberg allegedly commented "I'd do her", regarding certain women, some of whom were coworkers or employees.

95.

Michael Bloomberg later said that by "do", he meant that he would have a personal relationship with the woman.

96.

Michael Bloomberg's staff told the New York Times that he now regrets having made "disrespectful" remarks concerning women.

97.

Michael Bloomberg supported the construction of the 7 Subway Extension and the Second Avenue Subway; in December 2013, Bloomberg took a ceremonial ride on a train to the new 34th Street station to celebrate a part of his legacy as mayor.

98.

Michael Bloomberg owns six airplanes: three Dassault Falcon 900s, a Beechcraft B300, a Pilatus PC-24, and a Cessna 182 Skylane.

99.

Michael Bloomberg owns two helicopters: an AW109 and an Airbus helicopter and as of 2012 was near the top of the waiting list for an AW609 tiltrotor aircraft.

100.

Michael Bloomberg has received honorary degrees from Tufts University, Bard College, Rockefeller University, the University of Pennsylvania, Fordham University, Williams College, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, Villanova University and Washington University in St Louis.

101.

Michael Bloomberg was the speaker for Princeton University's 2011 baccalaureate service.

102.

On May 27,2010, Michael Bloomberg delivered the commencement speech at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University.

103.

Michael Bloomberg was named the 39th most influential person in the world in the 2007 and 2008 Time 100.