Name Kenneth Thompson | ||
Kenneth D. "Kenny" Thompson Jr., former aide to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, now serves as Director of External Relations at PepsiCo.
He was born October 31, 1980, son of Kenneth and Alisha Thompson. A native of Pflugerville, Texas, Thompson graduated from Texas Christian University (TCU), where he was a member of the university's baseball team and majored in political science.
Thompson joined Obama for America in 2007 as part of the campaign's advance team. He went on to serve as a Special Assistant and Advance Lead at the White House during the first two years of the Barack Obama Administration. He then served as Senior Advisor and Executive Assistant for United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Prior to leaving the Administration in July 2013 for PepsiCo, he was Vice President Joe Biden's Director of Message Events in the Office of the Vice President.
At the April 2013 White House celebration of Memphis soul music, President Obama publicly congratulations Thompson and Jessica Wright, another longtime Obama aide, on their engagement. The President called Thompson and Wright "crucial members of my team [...] they are wonderful, they've been loyal, shown such great friendship to me."
Thompson was featured in Vice President Biden's cameo on an episode of the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation" that aired on November 15, 2012.