John W. Thompson

John W. Thompson is chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Symantec Corporation. Under Thompson’s leadership, Symantec has grown from a small consumer software publisher to the market leader for security and availability solutions to help customers manage their rapidly growing digital assets. With global operations in more than 40 countries, the company is viewed as a strategic partner to its customers, providing a broad range of security, storage, availability, and performance management solutions to help them proactively manage their IT infrastructure.

Prior to joining Symantec, Thompson was with the IBM Corporation where he held senior executive positions in sales, marketing and software development. Thompson was general manager of IBM Americas and a member of the company’s Worldwide   Management Council.

Thompson completed his undergraduate studies at Florida A&M University and holds a master’s degree in management science from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

In September 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Thompson to the National Infrastructure Advisory Committee to make recommendations regarding the security of the critical infrastructure of the United States. In addition, Thompson has   served as the chair of the Silicon Valley Blue Ribbon Task Force on Aviation Security and Technology to identify and evaluate technology-driven solutions to improve the security and efficiency of national and local aviation.

Now here's a confession. Symantec announced a fiscal problem this week and the stock took a hit on Wall Street. As soon as I read the story, my stomach took a dive. Why? Because I know that Thompson runs the joint. I sweated for him, momentarily, just like I used to sweat for Bryant Gumbel in the 70s when he first got on the Today Show.

On Monday, software company Symantec released a Form 8-K stating that the Internal Revenue Service has served the company with a notice of deficiency for a shortfall of close to $1 billion for the years 2000 through 2004.

For 2000 and 2001, the IRS has stated that Symantec     (nasdaq:       SYMC -        news     -            people     ) owes $900 million in back taxes relating to transfer-pricing accounting between Veritas, which was acquired in 2005, and a foreign subsidiary. In addition, the IRS also seeks $100 million arising from the company's 2003 and 2004 transfer pricing accounting.

Here's another confession. The thing that worries me most about being an activist black conservative is that all the cats like Thompson are Democrats and I'll never get invited to the right parties. Then again, he's way out of my league anyway. Check out these numbers:

Total Annual Compensation 2.7 Million
Mkt Value of Exerciseable Options: 83.8 Million

Since it is my pet peeve this cycle to smack about the myth that black conservatives are getting rich off white conservative money, I just wanted to put a little bit of that in perspective. Here's somebody most folks don't even know exists, and I'd bet you anything that the money he's worth far outstrips what black conservative activists are getting from the likes of Sciafe and Co. I know I shouldn't be going off track when I just wanted to give the man props.. but hey. It's my blog.