Michael Bloomberg is not attractive.

He doesn’t have a spaceship venture. He doesn’t have a Facebook. He doesn’t own a private island in Hawaii. He never says ridiculous things and fights with fellow moguls on Twitter. He isn’t the guy who gives you his full attention when he enters the room and makes you feel like you’ve known him your entire life.
What he is—quietly. Humbly. Over the course of four decades is powerful. Incredibly. Utterly undeniably powerful. As an entrepreneur. As the mayor of New York City. And now, as ohe is of the greatest philanthropists in American history.
To be powerful like that without being sexy… that’s cool in its own right.

The Kid from Medford

Michael Rubens Bloomberg was born on Valentine’s Day, 1942, in Brighton, Massachusetts. He grew up just outside of Boston, in a working-class city called Medford. His father was a bookkeeper named William Bloomberg who worked for a dairy and never made much money but lived modestly enough that he was able to provide his family a comfortable life.
It wasn’t a rich household. But Bloomberg has described it as a strict one. His father valued education and instilled in him that if he worked hard enough, he could achieve more than his father ever did.
Bloomberg worked hard.
He was smart, but not a genius. He studied, he focused, and he competed in ways that didn’t always make him stand out in the crowd but allowed him to win nonetheless. He attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore on a pre-med track, studying electrical engineering. He put himself through school by parking cars and taking whatever job he could. When he graduated in ’64, he went to Harvard Business School and received his MBA two years later.
From there, he came to New York with his degree, his work ethic, and just enough money to scrape by.
Wall Street and the Firing That Changed Everything
In 1966, Bloomberg landed a job as a junior trader at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s most powerful investment banks. He didn’t have the right pedigree, didn’t come from the right family, and didn’t fit in with the slick Ivy-Leaguers who ran the place. He made up for it with drive. He came in early. He stayed late. He immersed himself in the business of bond trading, where he worked on the floor for most of his time at Salomon.
He climbed the ladder successfully, becoming a partner. In those days, being named a partner at one of Wall Street’s elite firms meant you really had made it.
So when the new owners bought out Salomon Brothers in 1981 and decided to clean house, it stung. Bloomberg was fired. At age 39, he suddenly found himself out of a job and given a $10 million severance check for his share of the partnership.
Most would have taken that check and found a lovely soft place to land. Bloomberg did not.
He started his own company.

Creating Bloomberg

Bloomberg realized that a massive need had not been filled. Traders wanted up-to-the-second information—prices, market data, and everything—fed directly to them. What was out there just wasn’t adequate. He could do better.
In 1981, he started Innovative Market Systems, which would eventually become Bloomberg L.P., and set about creating the Bloomberg Terminal, a specialized computer designed to deliver financial data, analytics, and news to traders everywhere.
The first units went into place at Merrill Lynch in 1982. They worked exactly as he said they would. Merrill Lynch bought more units. Other companies copied them. The Bloomberg Terminal became ubiquitous in the financial world—the one thing every serious trader, banker, and finance professional required on their desks to do their jobs. Today, there are about 325,000 Bloomberg Terminals worldwide. Each rents for about $24,000 per year. Do the math. Simple math. Staggering math. Bloomberg LP expanded into a worldwide financial data and media company with more than 20,000 employees. It now includes not just the terminal business but also Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Television, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg has never taken the company public. He has never sold any stake in the company. To this day, he owns and controls one of the largest financial publishers in the world, all grown from an idea… and decades of growth since. His net worth is estimated today at $105 billion. He is one of the richest people in America. All from a $10 million severance check and an idea about data.
Mayor of New York City
In 2001, the then-59-year-old Bloomberg stunned his many friends and acquaintances by running for mayor of New York City.
He had no experience in politics. He changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican just so he could run in the open primary. He self-funded an unheard-of $74 million campaign. And he won, assuming office only months after September 11th had left the city reeling, economically battered, and hungry for competent leadership.
From 2002 to 2013, Bloomberg spent three terms reforming New York City and imprinting himself on its skyline, literally and figuratively. His legacy there is still being written.
As with any reasonable person, Bloomberg will have a mixed record in governance. He presided over New York’s falling crime rates and continued an agenda started by his predecessor towards reducing crime in NYC. Launched hugely influential public health initiatives — banning smoking in public restaurants and bars, mandating calorie counts on menus, and spearheading massive anti-obesity initiatives — that were ridiculed at the time and quietly adopted by municipalities worldwide in the years since. Managed the city’s budget with a fiscal conservancy rarely seen in politicians and navigated New York City through the 2008 financial crisis with grace.
He was also a champion of LGBTQ issues and gun control, fighting for these issues politically and spending his own money tirelessly in support, much more than was required by simple politics.
On the bad: His administration’s hyper-aggressive stop-and-frisk policing program—which allowed police to search individuals without probable cause—racially targeted Black and Latino New Yorkers and became one of the biggest civil liberties controversies the city has ever seen. For years, Bloomberg insisted the policy was working perfectly fine before eventually apologizing for it (after he left office) in 2019. It was wrong.
His ill-advised attempt to bend the city’s term limit law so he could run for a third term was another low point that was viewed as profoundly antidemocratic even by those who liked him and supported his time in office.
He was flawed. He did positive things and bad things. He made mistakes. He was, in other words, a politician.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
In 2020, Bloomberg ran for the Democratic nomination for president. After dumping $1 billion of his money into a campaign that lasted about 90 days, he dropped out before a single vote was cast, having bombed in the debates and performed poorly in the early primaries.
It was the most expensive failed presidential campaign of all time. Bloomberg seemed largely unfazed by the loss, promptly endorsing Biden and pouring more money into helping Democrats win in swing states.
Mike Bloomberg is not a natural politician. He’s blunt. He doesn’t enjoy the theater of modern politics. He’s impatient with people who aren’t as efficient as he thinks they are. He excels at management and governance. Running a political campaign is different.
The Philanthropy: Bloomberg’s philanthropy is where his legacy will likely live on the longest. He’s given away more than $14 billion during his lifetime, making him one of the greatest philanthropists in American history. His focus has been on a handful of causes with a typical Bloomberg focus—public health, gun control, climate change, and education.

His philanthropies have funded anti-smoking initiatives in the developing world, which are credited with having saved millions of lives. He’s poured money into gun control advocacy via Everytown for Gun Safety, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on initiatives and candidates who support gun reform. He’s committed upwards of half a billion dollars to climate causes, partnering with governments and organizations to retire coal plants in the US and transition to clean energy sources worldwide.

Above all, he’s given more than $3.5 billion to Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater for undergrad. It’s the largest amount any single institution has ever received. He’s said he intends to give away 99% of his money before he dies and is currently on pace to do so.

He joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in signing the Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half of his wealth.

Michael Bloomberg is eighty-two years old, and he isn’t slowing down any time soon. He wakes up every day, heads into Bloomberg LP, puts in a full day of work, and then comes home to manage his philanthropies. He stays active in politics and political discourse and does so with gusto that most retirees spend their time amassing.

He will go down as one of the most polarizing figures in American public life. He can be brusque, has little patience for bullshit, and can be hellishly confident in his opinions. He’s made mistakes and held onto them longer than he should have on occasion.

But he grew up poor and built a global empire. He ran the most bustling metropolis in the country for twelve years. And he cares so deeply about this country that he spent billions of his dollars fixing the problems he saw, saving lives, and changing policies in ways that most wealthy people wouldn’t know how to begin to address.

Tom Walsh/Bloomberg/Getty Images Michael Bloomberg was born February 14, 1942, in Medford, Massachusetts.

He started his career as a tuition billionaire! Hahaha!

Oh, just kidding. He actually took us pretty far, though.

He is and will continue to be one of the most fascinating people of our generation.

Mike Bloomberg ·Born February 14, 1942, in Medford, Massachusetts

Founder · Bloomberg LP · 1981

Mayor of New York City·2002 to 2013

Net worth: $105 billion·Age: 82

Donated to charity $14 billion