Secretary Thompson focuses on developing solutions for clients in the health care industry, as well as for companies doing business in the public sector.
Before entering the private sector in 2005, Secretary Thompson enjoyed a long and distinguished career in public service in the United States. In 1966, he won a seat in Wisconsin’s State Assembly. He became Assistant Assembly Minority Leader in 1973 and Assembly Minority Leader in 1981. Elected Governor of Wisconsin in 1986, he was reelected in 1990, and in 1994 became the first governor in the state’s history to be elected to a third four-year term. In 1998, he was elected to a fourth term, and served in that position until his appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services in 2001.
As the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary Thompson served as the nation’s leading advocate for the health and welfare of all Americans. He worked to modernize and add prescription drug coverage to Medicare for the first time in the program’s history. A leading advocate of welfare reform, he also focused on expanding services to seniors, the disabled, and low-income Americans.
As governor of Wisconsin, Secretary Thompson was perhaps best known for his efforts to revitalize the Wisconsin economy, for his national leadership on welfare reform and for his work in expanding health care access across all segments of society.
Secretary Thompson is well known for his contributions to the U.S. response to the threat of bioterrorism and for his leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the United States and abroad, and he is chairman emeritus of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Secretary Thompson has received numerous awards for his public service, including the Anti-Defamation League’s Distinguished Public Service Award, Governing magazine’s Public Official of the Year Award and the Horatio Alger Award, which is awarded annually to “dedicated community leaders who demonstrate individual initiative and a commitment to excellence—as exemplified by remarkable achievements accomplished through honesty, hard work, self-reliance, and perseverance.” He is a former chairman of the National Governors’ Association, the Education Commission of the States, and the Midwestern Governors’ Conference.
Secretary Thompson received both his B.S. in 1963 and his J.D. in 1966 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a member of the District of Columbia and Wisconsin Bars.