Michael is widely recognized as an expert on International illicit trade, including IP theft and
Trade mark infringement. He has written and presented extensively on the subject and now acts as an International Advisor on Illicit Trade, where he helps initiatives to raise awareness to the influences brought by the involvement of organized crime. With a focus on training and capacity building he is the Chairman of the International IP Crime Investigators College, a learning platform that provides blended learning to 40,000 students globally.

With over 40 years’ experience in enforcement in both the public and private sector, coming from an operational police back ground, he was formally a Detective with Scotland Yard in London. He served with the Metropolitan Police fighting against serious International and Organized crime for 20 years.

Since 1996 he has been engaged in Global illicit trade enforcement, investigations, capacity building and training efforts. He also has wide experience in providing private sector companies with risk assessments, intellectual property reviews and advising on potential solutions and remedies.

He is the former Assistant Director of Police Services at INTERPOL, and was the Head of the INTERPOL Traffic in Illicit Goods and Counterfeit program. During this time his core responsibilities were to manage and coordinate INTERPOL’s global strategy to fight against illicit trade and counterfeiting infringement, and was leading the police organizations’ international efforts in this area.