Michael joined Highland in 1999 and serves as Senior Vice President. He is responsible for the firm’s marketing programs and activities across all funds and geographies. He also spearheads a number of key strategic market, portfolio and entrepreneurial development initiatives.
As part of his role, Michael advises Highland portfolio companies on marketing strategy, positioning, communications, programs and overall marketing effectiveness. In particular, he focuses on implementing programs that deliver competitive advantage for Highland portfolio companies. This includes CEO Summits, Marketing Summits, industry forums, the Highland Extranet and Highland Career Network, a first-of-its-kind industry program which has enabled Highland-backed companies to more effectively compete for talent across all levels of their organization.
In addition, Michael works closely with the top universities, business schools and entrepreneurial organizations around the world to apply Highland resources in helping the next generation of innovative entrepreneurs become successful. He has architected and launched such innovative programs as Summer@Highland, a comprehensive and intensive 10-week offering that provides select student entrepreneurs with the environment and resources to focus on an idea for building a company, and Entrepreneurship Central, a unique online platform for globally sharing advice, perspective and best practices on key aspects of the company creation process. Two projects from the Summer program have been funded by Highland to date and BusinessWeek has recognized Entrepreneurship Central as one of the top resources for entrepreneurs. Michael also runs the Highland Entrepreneur Center, a dedicated environment at Highland’s Lexington office that has hosted 50 seed and early stage projects over the last six years.
Background
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).
Education
University of Michigan, B.S., Computer Engineering
University of St. Thomas, M.B.A., Marketing
Interests
Michael is involved in numerous entrepreneurial and professional organizations, primarily those focused on further facilitating and fostering innovation. He is a Charter Member of TiE-Boston and has served on the Advisory Board of the Nantucket Conference since 2000. Previous involvements also include serving on the Management Committee of the ANZA Technology Network and the Executive Board of the Professional Marketing Forum of North America. Michael lives in the Boston area with his wife, Jennifer, and three children. They enjoy hiking, fishing, skiing, traveling and having fun together as a family.
