Mike Thompson | Chairman & CEO | Thompson Tractor
Thompson has been the CEO of his family’s company for the last quarter century and has grown it into an industrial behemoth. Thompson Tractor Company, Inc. is the full-line Caterpillar dealer for Alabama and northwest Florida and the Caterpillar forklift dealer for all of Georgia except the nine counties in the northwest corner of the state.
Business Council of Alabama CEO Billy Canary has called Thompson a “visionary.” The BCA even named one of their highest honors the “Thompsonian Leadership Award” in honor of Thompson, who Chaired the BCA in 2003 and initiated the formal partnership between the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council. He’s been a major economic development advocate for years.
Thompson’s influence in Alabama and national politics has been huge over the last couple of decades.
He was a George W. Bush “Pioneer,” one of the few hundred individuals who raised a minimum of $100k for the Bush 2004 re-election effort. He was a member of the Governor’s Circle, a $40k commitment to the successful push to elect a Republican majority in the Alabama legislature. He has given tens of thousands of dollars in recent years to the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and many other Republican causes and PACs, including Sen. Richard Shelby’s Defend America PAC. He was also a max donor to the Romney presidential campaign, and he continues to be a major contributor to preserving Alabama’s conservative courts.
In short, he puts his money where his mouth is. If you’re considering a run for statewide office in Alabama, Mike Thompson is one of the first people you go see.
