Michael is a founder and long-term managing-director of creative industries businesses. He guided his last venture (MKTG) to become an international marketing organisation with 32 offices in 20 countries. 

He stepped down in December 2020 to found Asociat which launchedin June 2021.  Asociat helps brands to identify and actively address the needs of the communities they serve by forging community partnerships. Those partnerships might include taking on digital poverty or improving access to sports or music. Or it might be pro-actively improving the quality of living in urban environments. 

Michael realised that business can and should be kinder and inclusive after he successfully completed a crowd funding campaign to create and launch, what is thought to be, the world’s first mental health drop-in centre inside a soup-kitchen. A social enterprise he now helps to lead.

He has a particular interest in the psychology of conflict and compromise.  This arose after he spectacularly fell out with his fellow shareholders in a business he led for a decade. The lessons learned gave rise to I Don’t Agree; Michael’s first book, which won GOLD at the Business Book Awards 2021 in the Leadership for the Future category.

In a much earlier life, Michael nearly made it in music. As a player/manager for a band he founded he secured not one, but two major recording contracts with Arista and later with MCA. He once featured as a giveaway sticker on the cover of Smash-Hits.