Growth and Innovation Specialist
Mike is the leader of the Deloitte Strategy & Operations practice in South Africa. He assists large multi-national clients with their strategic growth programmes and to solve complex business issues.
He has an enviable track record of operating businesses at the forefront of innovation on a world stage. These include media and entertainment, information technology and telecommunication companies. Mike has learnt the lessons on a practical first-hand basis and is able to share unique insights from his business experiences gained from multinational listed companies to family-owned businesses. As a FutureWorld guru he translates this experience into client specific learnings that organizations can apply to the future.
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Detailed BIO
Mike grew up in the Transkei on the east coast of South Africa where he learnt the language and customs of the ama-Xhosa. He attended Muir College, South Africa's oldest school, and completed his tertiary education at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. Mike started his business career at Unilever as a graduate management trainee.
In 1990 Mike joined Braxton Associates (the international strategy consulting division of Deloitte & Touche) and undertook detailed consulting assignments in the field of corporate, business and functional strategy development. During this time he completed his Masters in Business Leadership and achieved a distinction for his thesis entitled "The Potential Impact of Anti Trust Legislation in the Paper and Pulp Industry in South Africa".
In 1996 Mike formed and led the Black Economic Empowerment Umoya Communications consortium when it bid for and won the South African Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Algoa and BRFM Stereo radio stations. He commercialised the stations and 18 months later sold them into African Media Entertainment delivering to the consortium 12 times the initial investment. He was invited to become the founding CEO of this Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed media and entertainment company. Under Mike's stewardship AME achieved notable successes such as winning the Investment Analyst Society's best reporting and communication award and being adjudicated by the Finance Week annual JSE-listed company survey as the company which gave the highest returns on shareholders' funds in 1999.
Since 2000 Mike has been an entrepreneur. He has consulted widely to companies involved in technology, manufacturing, media and mining, has invested in leisure and telecommunications opportunities, and was a partner in an international investment banking group.
Mike is married to Susie and they have three delightful children. His passions include ornithology, fly fishing, horse riding and golf. He recently scored his third hole-in-one at Pinnacle Point on its signature 7th hole.