Dr. Thompson is the chairman of the Commission and senior advisor to the President on the UN’s’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He has more than 25 years’ experience as an economist, beginning his career in the mid-1990s as a senior economist at the Bureau of Fiscal and Economic Analysis in New York City, where he analysed economic policies of the United States, Europe, and Japan for their impact on the City's finances and economy.  

Subsequent stints included work as a senior economist and acting deputy resident representative for UNDP (South Africa); chief technical advisor (CTA) on local economic development for the ILO in Ghana; policy advisor in Sierra Leone; consultant to the prime minister's office in Ethiopia, and author of the UN's “Conceptual Framework for Resilient Economic Recovery from the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Between 2013 and 2017, he worked simultaneously as economic advisor to President John Mahama and director-general of NDPC, leading the preparation of Ghana's 40-Year National Development Plan. 

Prior to returning to the Commission as its chairman in February 2025, he served as the CTA in South Africa for productivity ecosystems, which was adopted by BRICS as “productivity ecosystems platform” to help accelerate productivity growth among its members as the surest path to rapid economic transformation