Michael joined Highland in 1999 and serves as Senior Vice President. He spearheads a number of key strategic market, portfolio and entrepreneurial development initiatives. Michael is also responsible for the firm’s marketing programs, media relations, events, speaking, online and direct marketing activities across all funds and geographies. Since joining the firm, he has had the opportunity to work individually with over 125 startups and emerging growth companies on a variety of marketing-focused initiatives.
Michael works closely with the top entrepreneurial organizations, industry associations, universities and other leaders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to help the next generation of innovative entrepreneurs become successful. He has developed and launched such innovative programs as Summer@HIGHLAND (an entrepreneurship program to provide student entrepreneurs and university-affiliated startups advance their startup over the summer), PepsiCo10 (first of its kind collaborative partnership with PepsiCo and Mashable to find and work with the most promising start-ups in media, communications and technology) and the Highland Career Network (enabling Highland-backed companies to more effectively compete for talent across all levels of their organization). He also runs the Highland Entrepreneur Center, which has hosted over 80 seed and early stage initiatives since its launch in 2001. Prior to joining Highland, Michael was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Gentia Software (Boston/London) where he led the efforts to re-brand the company in the analytical application space, notably around the Balanced Scorecard. Before that, he was Vice President of Marketing at IQ Software (Atlanta), a decision support software tools company. Prior to IQ, Michael held a variety of marketing, product management and software development roles at Unisys Corporation (Blue Bell, PA, Christchurch, New Zealand and Minneapolis) as well as Analysts International (Rochester, MN). Michael received his B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, and his M.B.A. in Marketing from the University of St. Thomas. Michael is actively involved in numerous entrepreneurial initiatives, particularly those focused on further facilitating community and fostering innovation. Current areas of involvement include Startup Massachusetts (Steering Committee), the UMass Boston’s Entrepreneurship Center (Advisory Board), Suffolk University’s “Innovation to Execution” initiative (Board), the Nantucket Conference (Advisory Board since 2001), TiE-Boston (Charter Member) and the University of Michigan Biosciences Network.
Michael lives in the Boston area with his wife, Jennifer, and has three children.