Mark Thompson

Mark John Thompson was born on 31 July 1957 in London, England, and brought up in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, by his parents, Sydney Columba (née Corduff) and Duncan John Thompson. Sydney was Irish, the daughter of a County Donegal policeman Garda Síochána. Mark Thompson has a sister, Katherine. Duncan Thompson was an accountant from Preston who died when Mark was twelve after suffering from chronic illness and depression.

Thompson was educated at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, and then went to Merton College, Oxford. He edited the university magazine, Isis.

Thompson is a Catholic, and was educated at the English Jesuit public school, Stonyhurst College, from 1970 to 1975. In 2010, The Tablet named him as one of Britain's most influential Catholics. Thompson lives in the United States with his wife, Jane Emilie Blumberg (daughter of Baruch Samuel Blumberg), whom he married in 1987. They have two sons and one daughter.

He is a member of the Reform Club and a patron of the Art Room charity in Oxford. In 2002, he joined the board of trustees of Media Trust, the UK's leading communications charity.

Thompson has been on the board of directors for The New York Times Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

In September 2021, it was announced that Thompson would co-chair, with Filipino journalist and editor Maria Ressa, the International Fund for Public Interest Media.

In 2011, Thompson was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Edge Hill University, and 2015, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Sacred Heart University.

In 2012, Thompson was the first Humanitas Visiting Professor in Rhetoric and the Art of Public Persuasion at the University of Oxford.

Thompson was knighted in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to media.

Comments on political bias

In September 2010, Thompson asserted that the BBC was previously biased against the Conservative Party, which he said he had witnessed early in his career. He stated: "In the BBC I joined 30 years ago there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people's personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the left". He added: "the organisation did struggle then with impartiality".

Roger Bolton, the former presenter of Feedback pushed back against the claim which was reported by the Guardian in 2010: "Perhaps he believes my fellow programme editors of that time like Chris Capron, George Carey, Ron Neil, Peter Ibbotson and Hugh Williams were lefties?" Bolton added. "In which case he must be possessed of remarkable insight since even today I don't know what their political leanings were or are," said Bolton in a letter to the BBC's in-house magazine, Ariel.

Jerry Springer: The Opera blasphemy allegations

Thompson was criticised by religious groups in relation to the broadcast of Jerry Springer: The Opera, with a private prosecution brought against the BBC for blasphemy. Lord Pannick QC appeared and won the case. The High Court ruled that the cult musical was not blasphemous, and Pannick stated that Judge Tubbs had "acted within her powers and made the only decision she could lawfully have made; while religious beliefs were integral to British society, so is freedom of expression, especially to matters of social and moral importance."

Earning controversy

In 2010, Thompson was identified as the highest paid employee of any public sector organisation in the UK, earning between £800,000 and £900,000 per year. In January 2010, Thompson was criticised over his apparent £834,000 salary by BBC presenter Stephen Sackur, who told him "there are huge numbers of people in the organisation who think your salary is plain wrong and corrosive."

Jimmy Savile controversy

Although Thompson departed the BBC before public exposure of the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal and is not noted in the BBC chronology of the unfolding coverage, Thompson faced questions about his role in the events around Savile's actions and BBC coverage of them. According to a New York Times review, Thompson denied knowing of a BBC Newsnight programme on accusations against Savile before it was became public knowledge soon after Savile's death in October 2011.