He is a Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government[1] and an adjunct professor at Macquarie University.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Australian National University in 1977, a Masters of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management in 1984 and a Masters of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1987.

From 1979 to 1982, as project officer for the Australian Conservation Foundation, he was a leader of the effort to protect the world heritage values of Tasmania's Franklin and Gordon Rivers from hydro-electric development.

Thompson was appointed a fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government in 2007 and teaches executive programs in public policy with a focus on communication concepts.

The Centre for Leadership creates educational workshops for the public, private and not-for-profit sectors on public interest issues such as ethics and communicating with integrity, according to Aristotle's principles of ethos, pathos and logos.