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Lou Thompson
Lou Thompson is showing no signs of slowing down. Although he has retired from his 24-year position as President and CEO of the National Investor Relations Institute, Lou still works full-time as a consultant.
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He is currently a managing director of Kalorama Partners, LLC, based in Washington, DC, and a partner with Genesis, Inc., based in Denver, CO.
Lou has always been active and the picture of health. He has to be, given the rigors of his many high-profile positions in the business and investment communities. You can imagine his surprise, then, when he found himself in Madrid, Spain, with chest pains, labored breathing, and the inability to climb a simple flight of stairs at the age of 53. Lou managed to deliver the speech he was scheduled to give that day, but immediately returned to the U.S., where he underwent open-heart surgery to repair a damaged heart valve. Today, with two young daughters from a second family, Lou says, "Dancing at their weddings has a new meaning."
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Lou's valve was repaired with a Cosgrove-Edwards annuloplasty ring. Physicians have been repairing heart valves for some 30 years, but at the time of Lou's first surgery, it was still a procedure for only a few, skilled surgeons. In fact, it was one of Lou's sons, then a medical student, who alerted him to the potential for valve repair. Fifteen years later, in 2007, Lou had to undergo his second mitral valve repair at the age of 68. He and his cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Irv Kron, again chose to use a Cosgrove-Edwards annuloplasty ring for the repair.
Today, Lou is as energetic as some men half his age. In addition to his second family, Thompson has five adult children in their 30s and 40s and nine grandchildren. Aside from his globetrotting career, Lou is also active on his horse farm in rural Virginia, raising Hanoverian sport horses and coaching his daughters' riding exercises. "I'm able to do things that a lot of younger men may struggle to do, but I have no problem with," he says. "And I'm delighted to have the opportunity and the vigor to do it."
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