H. Brian Thompson '60 Chemical Engineering

H. Brian Thompson
Chairman, President & CEO at Universal Telecommunications

Thompson heads his own private equity investment and advisory firm, Universal Telecommunications, Inc., in Vienna, Virginia. As a veteran senior executive of the telecommunication industry, Thompson has been instrumental in impacting the rise of competitive telecommunications both in the U.S. and abroad. 

Universal Telecommunications, Inc., is focused on both start-up companies and consolidations taking place in the information/telecommunications business areas both domestically and internationally. UTI has played a key role in the formation and/or management of companies such as Neustar, Comsat International, GTT, iTown Communications, Fiberutilities Group, DNG (Declaration Networks Group, Inc.), and eNet (Ireland).

Thompson served as the Co-Chairman for the Americas and on the Executive Committee of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission, a multinational organization launched in Brussels in 1995 to chart the role of the private sector in the developing global information and telecommunications infrastructure. For Ireland’s Department of Public Enterprise, Mr. Thompson served as Chairman of both the Advisory Committee for Telecommunications and, more recently, the Advisory Committee on Infocoms. For the period January-March 1999, he served as Chairman of Telecom Eireann, Ireland’s incumbent telephone company. 

He serves as a member of the Irish Prime Minister's Ireland-America Economic Advisory Board and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lab School of Washington & Baltimore Lab. He is a former chairman of the U.S. Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel), and also served on the University of Massachusetts Chancellor’s Executive Committee, as a Trustee of Capitol College in Laurel, MD, and Trustee of the St. Stephens and St. Agnes School Foundation in Alexandria, VA.

H. Brian Thompson is the author of "The Red Thread – My Fortunate Life in Telecommunications" and pays tribute to his family and their pivotal role that made him the leader he is today.