In recognition of the many contributions of the late Edward P. “Buddy” Bullard, III. Awarded annually to Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs alumnus who works professionally with communities of color and who serves as a mentor to current students of color at Princeton SPIA. 

Bullard Award Recipient 2024

Mozelle W. Thompson

Mozelle W. Thompson is CEO of Thompson Strategic Consulting where he provides strategic legal, regulatory, policy and business advice to innovative corporations and startups like Facebook, Samsung, Walt Disney Corporation, and UBMe. They have sought his guidance and counsel because of his substantial experience and leadership roles in government, law, policy and business. He also serves on Boards or Advisory Boards for several of these companies and served as the first member of Facebook’s Advisory Board.

Commissioner Thompson frequently appears on CBS, NBC, CNN, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance and CNBC where he provides expert guidance on a variety of market and regulatory issues, such as Antitrust, Data Privacy and High Technology. 

In addition to serving in several Presidential Transition Teams, Thompson was only the second African-American to serve as a Commissioner on the US Federal Trade Commission. There, he developed leadership roles in such areas as international consumer protection, high technology antitrust, data privacy and intellectual property. He also served as Chairman of the OECD Committee on Consumer Policy where he established groundbreaking policies to promote competition and protect consumers around the world. This role was particularly critical during the growth of today’s high technology industry and it was where he produced the first international standards for e-Commerce.

Prior to the FTC, Thompson served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury where he was responsible for Government Financial Policy.  He was the first African-American to serve in domestic finance.  Before going to Washington, Thompson served as Acting Executive Director, Secretary and General Counsel of the New York State Housing Finance Agency, (HFA), the State of New York Mortgage Agency, (SONYMA), New York Medical Care Facilities Finance Agency. He also practiced law with the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York.

Thompson is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School, and received his MPA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. He has taught at Fordham, Princeton and Stanford universities and has received numerous awards in recognition of his work, including the Distinguished Service Award by the UC Berkeley School of Law and its Center for Law and Technology and the Hong Yen Chan Award by the Asian American Bar Association of New York. In 2014 he was awarded the John Jay Award by Columbia College and in 2016 Columbia University gave him its highest alumni honor – the Alumni Medal. 

Commissioner Thompson’s professional, philanthropic and educational activities include leadership positions with the American Bar Association, several non-profit organizations and mentoring organizations for underserved communities and children.  He is the son of the late Charles and Eiko Suzaki Thompson of West Babylon, New York.

Background

Edward P. Bullard received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Howard University in 1988. He entered SPIA to pursue a MPA in 1995 on a Karl E. Prickett Scholarship and specialized in domestic policy. In the years in between, he co-founded the Renaissance Real Estate Institute, which provides technical assistance and community and economic development information to urban residents in New York, Washington, DC, and Maryland. He served as Director of the Blackham School Community Lighthouse in Bridgeport, CT where he designed and operated after-school and summer programs for students in grades K-12. He later worked as a planning coordinator for the NEU East End Community Board, Inc., where he helped to develop and promote community empowerment. He also volunteered as a youth mentor with the Bridgeport Board of Education and participated in Project Blueprint, a United Way training course that trains leaders to serve on local non-profit boards of directors. While at Princeton, he took a middle year out to intern on Capitol Hill in the Office of Senator Christopher J. Dodd (CT). 

In addition to working to recruit students of color to SPIA, Edward served as the catalyst for the first Students and Alumni of Color Symposium. As Assistant Dean John Templeton explains, Edward "planted the seed for an annual meeting of alumni and students of color, envisioning a weekend where alumni could share their expertise about their careers and begin to mentor students toward making successful career choices."

Edward passed away on January 5, 1998, while on medical leave from Princeton, but his legacy at SPIA remains. The Symposium has become a school tradition, bringing alumni and students together in a vibrant and inspiring way.

Award Criteria

The award is to be given to a SPIA alumnus (either graduate or undergraduate alum, regardless of ethnic background) who has served as an exemplary mentor to students and/or students in his/her community and is thus, an inspiration to students of color at SPIA.