Hon. Michael R. Bloomberg is the 108th Mayor of the City of New York. Elected to office in 2001, in his first term, Mayor Bloomberg cut crime; created jobs; unleashed a boom of affordable housing; implemented ambitious public health strategies, including the successful ban on smoking in restaurants and bars; gained control of the nation's largest school district; and improved the efficiency of government. In 2005, he was re-elected by a diverse coalition of support. In his second term, while balancing the budget and driving unemployment to a record low, Mayor Bloomberg has taken on a number of new challenges. He launched an innovative program to combat poverty. He's undertaken a far-reaching campaign to fight global warming. And as co-founder of a bipartisan coalition of more than 200 mayors from every region of the country, he is working to keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals and off city streets. Michael Bloomberg began a small start-up company called Bloomberg LP in 1981. Today, Bloomberg LP has over 250,000 subscribers to its financial news and information service. Headquartered in New York City, the company has 9,500 employees in more than 130 cities worldwide.