Emile C. Thompson was appointed to the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia by Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2021 and re-appointed as Interim Chairman on December 1, 2021. He was confirmed as Chairman on June 7, 2022.

Before the Commission, Chairman Thompson was an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. He has also served as a Principal Member of the D.C. Water Board of Directors since 2016. While on the Board, Chairman Thompson chaired the Human Resources and Labor Relations Committee and served on the Governance, Strategic Planning, and D.C. Retail Rates committees. Chairman Thompson began his career as a clerk for the Honorable (Ret.) Herbert B. Dixon, Jr. of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He also served in the Mayoral Administrations of Vincent Gray and Muriel Bowser.

Chairman Thompson is an active member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), representing public service commissions that regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. He serves as NARUC Co-Vice Chair of the Committee on Critical Infrastructure established after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to provide state regulators a forum to analyze solutions to utility infrastructure security and delivery concerns. He is a member of the NARUC Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment, which focuses on energy efficiency, environmental protection, renewable and distributed resources, consumer protection, and low-income weatherization and assistance. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Organization of PJM States, Inc., which promotes and protects the public interest in providing reliable and reasonably priced electric service.

Chairman Thompson graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in Computer Science and minors in Math and Biology. His law degree was conferred from Wake Forest University School of Law.

Born in Washington, D.C., Chairman Thompson resides with his wife and children. He is active in the D.C. community serving as a board member of the Abramson Scholarship Foundation, and is a former board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington.