Sam Thompson was appointed to the Public Utilities Commission as commissioner on July 16, 2007; reappointed on October 1, 2008 to a statutory four-year term; and appointed Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission on October 1, 2009.

He currently serves on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Committee on Electricity and on the Advisory Board of the New Mexico State University Center for Public Utilities. Prior to these appointments he served as a commissioner on the Nevada Transportation Authority and on the Nevada Standing Committee on Judicial Ethics and Election Practices. Previous to these gubernatorial appointments, Chairman Thompson was a civil arbitrator/mediator panelist in the Las Vegas office of JAMS, The Resolution Experts. He has also been a planning and training consultant for the United States Department of Justice, National Academy of Corrections and has presented legal seminars around the country.

In 1990, Chairman Thompson was elected to an eight-year term in Division VI of the Shelby County General Sessions Court in Memphis, Tennessee. He retired in 1998, after serving 25 years with Shelby County Tennessee (Memphis) Government in a variety of judicial and administrative positions. Previous to his election in 1990, he served as judicial referee and special judge at the Shelby County Juvenile Court in Memphis, Tennessee. Chairman Thompson is a graduate of the College of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, National Judicial College at Reno, Nevada, and of the Tennessee General Sessions Judges' Academy. He served as administrator of corrections for Shelby County Government and superintendent of the Shelby County Correction Center.

While maintaining a private law practice, Chairman Thompson was also an assistant Shelby County attorney, with his practice focusing on civil rights litigation in the federal trial and appellate courts and employment/administrative trial work and appeals in the state trial and appellate courts. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Memphis and earned his juris doctorate degree while serving as a sergeant with the Shelby County Sheriffs’ Department.

Commissioner Thompson’s term expires on September 30, 2012.