Christopher Thompson

Chris Thompson is the senior vice president at arnie berghoff & associates, where he provides strategic planning and government affairs services to corporate and non-profit clients. He has extensive experience working in government at all levels (federal, state, and local) and as an executive in corporate and non-profit organizations. He also has served on boards of prominent non-profit and community organizations in Southern California. Prior to aba, he served as chief of staff to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. In that role, he led the transition of the mayor’s office, including hiring the senior staff and assisting the mayor in establishing policy, programmatic, and personnel priorities. Prior to working in the mayor’s office, he led government relations for LA28, the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. During that time, he served as one of Governor Newsom’s two appointees to the California Privacy Protection Agency Board. He spent seven years at Southern California Edison, spearheading the organization’s community and local government relations. While there, he also led the development of the strategy to decommission the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Previously, he spent a decade at the US Senate, most notably as chief of staff for Senator Dianne Feinstein, overseeing the legislative agenda, communications, and political strategy. He began his government career as a legislative assistant to Representative Julian Dixon. In addition to serving on the Public Policy Institute of California Statewide Leadership Council, he previously served on the boards of PBS SoCal, the California Science Center, the Coalition for Clean Air and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. He received a BA in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.