Michael R. Bloomberg (MBA 1966) is founder and CEO of the financial data firm Bloomberg LP, the former mayor of New York City, and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies. He is a 2019 recipient of the HBS Alumni Achievement Award. In this interview, he talks about the goals and outcomes of his philanthropic efforts.

“Bloomberg the company has been in existence for 35 years. It is a private company. We give most of the company and all of my share of the earnings to the foundation. It is a real big recruiting tool when we say, ‘Go to work for the other company; you'll make a bunch of rich people richer. Go to work for Bloomberg, and the money is going to go to end polio, and educate kids.’

“And we try to do things where, number one, other people aren't particularly interested in it. And then once we get in, then we try to get them interested in it. So it's not just us, and there'll be a successor.

“I'm very interested in government and what mayors do to improve people's lives. So we have the Bloomberg Harvard program. Professors from the B school and the K school have provided real help to cities around the country and around the world in training mayors how to take the next step in actually doing the job that they ran for. And you’ve got to remember, the skill sets to run for office have nothing do with the skill sets to do the job once you get there.

“I'm not obsessed with numbers, but we always have a saying at Bloomberg, “If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.” So I don't think you have to demand results right away in everything, but you have to have a vision and think that down the road, have some confidence that it's going to work. And if it's not working, be willing to adjust it, change it, cancel it, do something else with your money.”

(Published July 2019)

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