Foley’s new city administrator Michael Thompson has been working with government in Baldwin County since 2006, but he also has experience in administrative roles within large technology companies as well. Thompson has high hopes for his new position with the City of Foley and is looking forward to getting involved.

Thompson was born in Missouri, but he grew up in Miami. He and his wife currently live in Barnwell. He attended Auburn University and received his bachelors and masters degrees.

“After that, I took jobs in technology companies,” Thompson said. “My first professional full-time job out of college was as a financial analyst for Texas Instruments.”

After leaving Texas Instruments, Thompson worked for Hewlett-Packard as a financial analyst, but he also did some accounting work, process design work, product management, supplier management and procurement. Thompson left HP in 2006, but he took skills he had honed with technology companies along with him to his next challenge, city government.

Thompson jokes if someone had told him when he was in his early 20s he would someday work in government, he would have laughed, but once he got into government he found he enjoyed it immensely.

“I got into government in 2006,” said Thompson. “When the county thing came open I viewed it as an opportunity to get involved with my community and take my skills and hopefully help. That is the way I approached it and I think we did a lot of good things up there. I found that I really enjoyed it.

“Working for large multi-million-dollar global companies, you have a lot of exciting things you work on, but you typically don’t drive home and see a project you are working on. With local government you do. That is a lot of satisfaction to me.”

Thompson left his position with the county in November of 2010.

When the position came open in Foley, Thompson jumped at the chance to get back into government, even though Foley would be very different than the county.

“I was excited about it,” Thompson said. “After working in government I wanted to continue working in it and Foley is a good opportunity. It is nearby, I know Foley, and it is in my community where my wife and I raised our kids. It is a good fit, I think.”

Thompson also said his new position in Foley will pose some challenges he has not dealt with while he was working for the county, but until mid-April, Thompson will have a mentor to help him get accustomed to his new position.

Perry Wilbourne, Thompson’s predecessor, will stay with the city until mid-April, teaching Thompson everything he has learned in his 18 years as Foley’s city administrator.

Thompson’s transition, four days in, has been very smooth thanks to Wilbourne’s guidance.

“That is a blessing, it really is. A lot of times you come into positions like this and the position would have been vacant for six months. Having Perry available is a big plus for me because he has been here 18 years. His official date is in April, so that gives me two to two-and-a-half months where I can hopefully absorb some of the stuff that he knows about and he has been helping me kind of get up to speed on projects that are midway and where we are at on those,” said Thompson.

Thompson also discussed some of the differences between working for the county and a city he expected to encounter.

“It is a little bit more focused than my position at the county. The area that we are focusing on is the city limits of Foley and then its surrounding police jurisdiction. Just that area that we are focused on is different. There are different priorities between city and county government,” said Thompson.

He also found some similarities and feels he will still be working towards a similar goal.

“It is a little different perspective, but in terms of budgeting and putting together plans to move a community forward it is similar. One thing that I am really excited about is working on some of the redevelopment and rejuvenation of downtown Foley. That is something again, that the county wasn’t that involved in,” Thompson said.

He said he still has some things to get used to in Foley, but he has hit the ground running and hopes to absorb everything Wilbourne has to offer before he takes over all responsibilities in April.

“I am still learning names,” Thompson said on Wednesday. “I have been spending my time meeting with some of the senior people here, the department heads and that kind of stuff just to hear what they are working on and what their goals are for their departments and that kind of thing. I have been doing that mainly for the first four days and I have a few more days of that yet. That is giving me a better perspective of the challenges that we have.”