Michael Bloomberg

Mayor of New York City / Business Personality

Michael Bloomberg succeeded Rudy Giuliani as mayor of New York City in 2002. Bloomberg was a general partner at Salomon Brothers when he was let go in 1981 after a merger; that same year he founded Innovative Market Systems (later Bloomberg LP). The new subscription service wired real-time financial data, research and news reports directly into dedicated terminals in business offices. As these "Bloomberg terminals" flourished, he expanded into television, radio, publishing and the Internet; Bloomberg News, launched in 1990, became a prominent financial news source. His successes made Bloomberg a billionaire and made his name synonymous with business information. He shifted gears in 2001, running for New York mayor as a Republican and defeating Democrat Michael Green just two months after the attacks of 11 September 2001. He was reelected in 2005. In 2008 he said he wanted to run for a third term, and would ask the New York city council to overturn the existing two-term mayoral limit. Bloomberg graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1964 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, then earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1966. His 1997 autobiography was titled Bloomberg by Bloomberg.

Extra credit: Bloomberg is New York City's 108th mayor... His middle name is Rubens; it is his mother's maiden name... He was a Democrat for many years before switching to the Republican party shortly before his run for mayor. In 2007 he left the Republican party and registered as an independent... He founded his business as Innovative Market Systems in 1981; it was renamed Bloomberg LP in 1986... Bloomberg was married to the former Susan Brown from 1975 until their divorce in 1993. They had two daughters, Emma (b. 1979) and Georgina (b. 1983)... Bloomberg Radio went on the air in 1993... Bloomberg TV went live on cable in 1994... Bloomberg.com went online in 1995.

Another businessman-turned-politician is Steve Forbes... Another former New York City mayor is Fiorello LaGuardia.