Michael is co-founder of Seven Hills, the fast-growth and highly acclaimed campaigns firm. It is the Holmes Report Best Corporate Consultancy in the world and EMEA Corporate Consultancy of the Year for 2014. It is the Santander Breakthrough 50 winner for 2014.
He is also co-founder of StartUp Britain, the national initiative for early-stage enterprise launched by the Prime Minister and fully supported by HM Government. The campaign helped to create the environment for a record-breaking 500,000 new business registrations in 2013.
Michael has worked at the heart of the national enterprise effort assisting the Department for Business on the development of initiatives including Start-Up Loans, Business in You, the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and the Small Business Charter, on whose management board he also sits. As a member of Catalyst UK he works with UK Trade & Investment to promote UK excellence internationally.
He is Chairman of Entrepreneurs at the private bank Coutts, and is an Advisory Board Member for the National Business Awards. He has also been appointed Honorary Fellow of the University of Cambridge Judge Business School Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning.
Michael co-founded HRH The Duke of York’s E20 advocacy group for entrepreneurs and serves on the steering board of the Inspiring Digital Enterprise Awards alongside HRH The Duke of York and the musician will.i.am.
An acknowledged destination marketing expert, Michael is a non-executive director of Creative Sheffield, a member of Festivals Edinburgh, and has also served as a Non-Executive Director with the City of Westminster (Westco), and as a commissioner on The Future Of Cities Inquiry.
Michael has written as The Daily Telegraph’s Enterprise Columnist, writes for the Evening Standard and is a regular reviewer on the Sky News Murnaghan show. He has co-authored a new book from Penguin ‘Mission: How the Best in Business Break Through’ which will be published in July 2015.
An accomplished event MC he has interviewed Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Dragons’ Den’s Peter Jones, digital pioneer Martha Lane Fox, Whole Foods founder John Mackey, Olympic legend Lord Coe, Business Secretary Vince Cable, Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna, and the Prime Minister, David Cameron.
He is one of GQ Magazine’s inaugural 100 Most Connected Men, and was awarded an MBE in the 2014 New Year’s Honours List for services to enterprise promotion.