Highlights and bio for Michael Iacona

Working for Michael for over four years, I have had the opportunity to experience some of the stellar traits others have already noted in his recommendations.   In addition to his high academic and professional achievements, Michael possesses a rare authenticity in his leadership style. He is passionate about developing people and the motivation with which he does so is contagious. As a result, the teams he builds possess a very high “engagement quotient” and develop promotable individuals.   His style is humble, his approach sincere and expectations high. He has played a memorable role in my professional development and I would highly recommend him!

I have been working with Michael at the Integrative Nutrition for over a year. In his capacity as President and Director, Michael worked with me closely on the development of our from-scratch reimplementation of our core course delivery platform. (I am the product owner and manager.) This product consists of native iOS and Android apps, responsive web app, and central backend server that delivers a fully integrated and synced student experience to thousands of online students.   Michael has been invaluable as a leader and guide throughout this process. He made the tough high-level decisions to keep the project going, and more importantly he has done a wonderful job of creating a strong project leadership team consisting of product managers, technologists and key business stakeholders. He has displayed an uncanny awareness of potential risks well before they materialize, and as a result we have been prepared throughout the development and launch process and experienced (in the words of one of our stakeholders) “the smoothest product launch ever.” The product has been receiving rave reviews from our students, and I attribute a large part of that directly to Michael’s leadership.   Michael is able to focus on both the tech and business side of the enterprise with equal dedication, and that has helped us to succeed as a fully online school. I wholeheartedly endorse Michael for leadership roles in the online education and software development worlds.

Michael and I worked on a final class project together for our High-tech Entrepreneur class at Columbia Business School. He impressed me most in that:   1) His ability to use strong technical expertise and integrate with solid business sense;   2) Strong entrepreneurial spirit, take ownership and leadership, in small or big business settings;   3) His motivation to continuously learn new knowledge, acquire new skills and constantly improve himself.   I believe these attributes will serve Michael well in all future endeavors.

I had the good fortune to work with, and report to, Michael for just under year at IIN. He was singlehandedly responsible for expanding and professionalizing the organization, championing and supporting high end technology solutions to solve business problems, installing a world class management team and turning around the business. He is fair, incredibly hardworking and leads by example. In short, he is a great top executive.

I have been working for Michael for the past 6 years at TMP Worldwide and Monster Worldwide before that. As a leader he gave me the direction, and had faith in me to build a technology infrastructure group as we transitioned to a new startup organization. He is a consummate leader and visionary, always challenging and motivating his team towards success and constant improvement.   Michael has a talent of demystifying complicated issues to get to the heart of the matter – whether determining the best way to implement a strategic vision, or solve a problem. It is refreshing to work with someone who can clearly define requirements. He also understands the importance of using metrics, scorecards, and business intelligence as ways to improve customer service and satisfaction.   Michael has also proven himself as a true dedicated business leader – working to understand business and technology trends, filtering them down to tangible methods of improving our overall business. One of Michael’s strengths is his ability to communicate clearly to business leaders the importance and value of technology. Working with Michael has improved my personal business and leadership skills.

I worked directly with Michael in the hiring of a completely new management team at IIN. During this time I found Michael to be extremely dedicated to the company’s mission. His passion toward building an executive team and growing the company was infectious. This commitment from Michael was instrumental to attracting top talent and accelerating the overall hiring process.   Additionally, I was equally impressed with the depth and breadth of Michael’s knowledge in all facets of the business; he was able to clearly articulate the needs for each department. Whether it was marketing, sales, product or finance, Michael was well versed in all the operational details as well as the strategic plans for those areas.   It was a pleasure working with Michael and I would welcome the opportunity to work with him again.

IIN (of which Michael is President) and Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) joined in a creative partnership to provide advanced standing to IIN graduates at MUIH. The discussions were forthright, professional, personable and mutually beneficial. Michael’s support made this happen in a timely manner; the contract terms were easily adopted; and IIN has been an excellent partner.

Michael is a strong leader with a thoughtful, and collected presence. Working with him at Integrative Nutrition he introduced much needed structure and organization to our company and was critical to our success during a key transition period. His direction and drive for excellence encouraged our marketing team to pursue best practices in email marketing enabling us to receive certification improving our email deliverability and overall success of email campaigns. He oversaw the development and execution of a new nurturing series for new leads to help streamline communications and create consistent engagement with our community. Michael is the driving force behind many critical projects. He knows how to ask the right questions, identify key challenges, and support those under him to achieve their goals. In my work with him, he helps me ensure we explored new approaches to our marketing promotions while keeping the business needs and goals in mind. He has the ability to create a positive team environment that makes you strive to do your best and work hard. Michael is a dedicated leader who works with integrity, honesty, and is a valuable person to have in your corner.

As the Director of Education at IIN, I report directly to Michael. IIN is growing in size but uniquely un-corporate and very much driven by our visionist founder. Michael has done a wonderful job understanding IIN’s vision while adding more traditional corporate elements that help the company to operate more effectively, like annual job reviews. He clearly articulates company goals and makes sure that employees understand how their projects directly relate to these goals.   Since Michael has been at IIN, I have noticed improved communication and teamwork between department managers. Under Michael’s leadership we launched a new learning platform and app for our students that completely changes how our curriculum is delivered.   Michael cares deeply about the success of our staff and our students. He publicly appreciates staff and takes the time to attend student events so he can speak with them directly and learn more about their experience taking our program.   Michael is very approachable, always willing to have a discussion or help me work through a problem. He gives advice but doesn’t push his view, and I appreciate his considering my opinion and working with me to develop solutions. This has allowed me to grow in my position. I have learned a lot about how to manage effectively by working with Michael.

It’s not often you find a leader that you fully respect, trust, and admire–I found just that in Michael. As the President of Integrative Nutrition, he created structure and stability at a time we needed it most, not only by instituting a performance management system for all staff, but by also building a team of seasoned professionals to drive IIN’s objectives for continued growth forward. Michael is a tireless worker who truly puts all of his heart and drive into making an organization stronger. And he succeeded in this case.

I worked very closely with Michael as part of the TMP Advertising divestiture. Throughout this complex project, he provided keen technology insight as well as clear direction to his team, resulting in an improved and cost efficient technology infrastructure for the new entity. This was no simple feat as he was under a very tight budget with aggressive timelines. In addition to his technology expertise, Michael proved his business acumen both pre and post split. He understood what issues were important to take a firm stand on and which ones required give and take. Without this sensibility, the common goal would not have been achieved and a costly, non productive stalemate would have occurred. I would highly recommend Michael for a leadership role and hope that we have a chance to work together in the future.

I had the pleasure of reporting to Michael for over six years at TMP Worldwide. As the technology leader of the organization, Michael set clear goals and directions for his team. He ensured that every person on his management team adhered to these goals and was always available to give direction and leadership. Michael always makes it a point to understand the business’s needs and ensures that his technology roadmaps add value to the various business units.   Michael never hesitates to make difficult decisions and always looks out for the best interests of his team. He also gives his management team enough freedom to run their own departments and make the decisions that they need to. Michael holds his team accountable for their actions and makes sure that he gives credit where it’s due.   One of Michael’s biggest strengths is that he is a great mentor. I can say from personal experience that when I was pursuing my MBA, Michael was always keen on the classes I was taking and helped me choose electives that would have a direct impact on my job. He was always available to help me out if I had any questions around projects that I was working on. At the same time, he ensured that I worked with each of my direct reports to clearly set career goals and objectives for them.   Working for Michael made me a better leader and I am happy to recommend him!

Michael’s unerring product vision and passionate commitment to excellence catapulted IIN to becoming a full-fledged technology company with a state-of-the art cross-platform service offering. Michael is a clear and inspiring decision maker whose personal integrity and genuine care for his staff – from the newest intern to the most senior executive – creates a sense of camaraderie and a genuine enthusiasm for success across the company. It’s exciting and energizing to work for Michael. He’s not afraid to ask (or answer) the hard questions and his ability to balance long-term strategy against near-term tactical goals keeps the team focused and aligned on organizational objectives, even when it becomes necessary to change them. Michael also practices what he preaches; he earns his team’s respect by giving it. For example, despite continuous demands on his time, Michael comes prepared and on time to meetings. He reads documents in advance and often brings along redlined copies to ensure that his input is relevant and goal directed, taking into account both important details and the big picture. When Michael joins a meeting, he is fully engaged and his comments truly make a difference. The same is true for performance appraisals. When it came time for my review, Michael had not only connected with my peers, staff and key stakeholders but had also collected written comments on specific aspects of my performance so that he could give me the most detailed and actionable feedback possible. The quality of effort he put into creating my review speaks volumes about his strength as a people manager. Needless to say, I’d work for Michael again in a heartbeat!  

Working directly for Michael over the past year has been nothing less than enjoyable and very satisfying. One of the main reasons that I chose TMP was for the shared vision we both have – to create a world-class Customer Support organization. He is very adaptable to change and knows that an organization must transform over time to survive. In addition, he is one of the best speakers I have ever worked with; he knows how to rationalize every situation and do what makes sense for the business and the people. I truly enjoy his ‘common sense approach’ to doing business and resolving day-to-day issues and I am constantly learning from his management techniques and style. Michael is also a fundamentally solid leader; his talents and business savvy skills speak for themselves. Personally, continuing my ambitions with Michael in my corner will always be a win-win situation that I will never turn down.

I worked very closely with Michael for several years. I found him to be a technical executive who understood the business side and was able to manage the integration of technology that fit with business objectives. He managed deftly the design and implementation of solutions such as our CRM, order management system and business intelligence reporting platform; all provided efficiency, cost savings, control and made life easier for internal users and client facing personnel.

Michael was not only a pleasure to work with, he was instrumental in aligning the various work-streams during acquisition due diligence. Because of Michael’s efforts, there were repeatable processes developed and implemented, and the flow of communication between Tech M&A and my group allowed us to mitigate risk and manage costs for the company.

Michael is an experienced senior level executive in both business and technology. In his role, he developed and rolled out a global technology M&A framework. Although he was new to the company and in a newly created role, he acted as a change agent, quickly establishing relationships and successfully influencing processes as he worked across the organization. His leadership set the stage to enable proper engagement and cost/risk assessments of a number of technology functions during the pre-close due diligence, including the technology function that I represented. He was a real pleasure to work with and I highly recommend Michael.

I have had the pleasure of working with Michael for 7+ years at TMP Worldwide. Michael is a self-motivated, strategic executive who always delivered. He possesses great energy and interpersonal skills and knows how to successfully manage teams and clients. He brought a wealth of knowledge to the position and his skill set is unlimited. I highly recommend Michael.

As a leader of a technology organization, Michael is a mentor and strategic thinker. He establishes a clear vision of success for his teams and has a very balanced skill set around technology, business and finance. He gives his team enough autonomy to be able to perform and execute in challenging situations.   Michael has a keen business sense and is well known for quickly identifying the context of a situation and offering an appropriate solution.   Michael’s educational achievements are a formal testament to his depth of knowledge, specifically in business, technology and finance.   I am happy to give my recommendation to Michael as a valuable addition to any organization.

From working with Michael, I learned what strong leadership and management look like. Among other accomplishments, Michael brought disjointed departments together, increased communication throughout the company, established a performance management system, and lead a large-scale technological development project that immensely improved our product. He quickly identified a challenge in our reporting systems and found a solution that changed how we can gather, analyze, and use data for decision making. Many people just deal with challenges in an organization; Michael seeks to find the solutions. Michael manages to be detail oriented and hold his staff to high standards without micro-managing or demanding. As a new manager, I learned my first real management skills by observing his ability to motivate and guide people of varying skills, career levels, and personalities. I especially appreciated how he was always clear and direct in his expectations of me and other staff members. He is intelligent and committed in his work, a respectful and motivating manager, and a natural leader.

I have had the pleasure to work with Michael going on 3yrs. He is a diligent professional who strives to lead by example.. He treats his partners with respect and continuously works to provide excellence. It is a pleasure to work with him as a partner.

I’ve had the pleasure of working for Michael for close to 7 years & it has been the most enriching experience of my career. As a leader he mentored me and always provided clear direction. I understood what was expected of me to help the organization achieve its goals.   Michael not only had a clear vision for the future of the technology organization but also clearly communicated that vision to his management team with specific plans to achieve it. Michael’s ability to think strategically in every situation was highly impressive. He always knew what technology had to do to allow the business to achieve its objectives.   Michael is as multi-faceted as a technology leader needs to be. Be it negotiating/designing contracts with Vendors, working with the business partners to define strategy or working with his managers to assess the latest technology trends he was always in control of the situation.   Having worked with him closely for several years I can attest to the attributes highlighted in his recommendations. I would welcome any opportunity to work closely with him again and would highly recommend him for any executive leadership position.

Michael is an excellent partner and consistently goes well beyond what is expected. His level of responsiveness, thoughtfulness, and eagerness to help has brought several improvements and efficiencies to our talent acquisition and recruiting ops teams, and to DigitalOcean’s overall talent brand. Specifically, Michael’s focus on data and reporting has enabled us to more accurately capture and analyze traffic to our jobs and career pages, ultimately informing our decision making.

Michael was my masters degree mentor at Columbia University. In this role, Michael provided outstanding advice not only on the technical content of my thesis, but also on the financial, marketing, and operating aspects of the firm I proposed to build. Additionally, Michael provided expert guidance and real world experience around pitching my proposal and obtaining funding. Michael is absolutely focused on quality, thoroughness, and attention to detail. He taught me a lot, but perhaps more importantly, he made me learn new things in new ways on my own. Michael pushed me to do my absolute best, and this was widely recognized in my cohort, and by my professors. Michael has also provided mentoring for my day-to-day role, especially around negotiations, leadership, and influence. Again, Michael’s help has been invaluable. Michael is very bright, extremely dedicated, and incredibly focused on quality. I enthusiastically recommend him for any leadership role.

Michael is a truly unique and effective leader that guides his executives and lets them grow by trusting in their experience and instincts. He empowers the people that work for him and provides support and guidance when needed. He easily communicates the company vision and captures buy in from the entire company to meet our goals.

Michael’s accomplishments at IIN have been truly amazing, and I’m not sure there are many business leaders out there who could have been half as successful even if given twice the amount of time. He joined an organization that had no structure or management team but with a good, proven product that was poised for true innovation. I’m so honored to be hired, managed and mentored by Michael as part of the new management team. And I’m proud of the new generation of our product that he led the team through developing, which truly positions IIN as providing a premium leading edge learning platform.

Michael’s skill as an executive, and his discipline, integrity and character are the hallmarks of his leadership style. His straight forward manner combined with a clarity of purpose engenders a feeling of trust and confidence in his leadership. Michael is passionate and dedicated to the organization’s mission and highly sensitive to the marketplace. He understands how to strike a balance between longer-term strategic issues and the pragmatic day-to-day decisions so that both are achieved. In addition to the significant impacts he made on the Marketing and Sales organizations, Michael championed the company’s eLearning (product delivery) platform. This was an important strategic initiative that required a blending of talents across the organization from technology and education to marketing and student services. The final product is a beautiful and flexible platform that the organization will be proud to present to our community for years to come. It positions the company to thrive in the years ahead and sets the foundation for its future growth. Those of us who have the privilege of working closely with Michael admire his accomplishments at IIN. He built a foundation that is capable of taking the company to the next level in terms of organization, technology and professionalism. He is truly a unique and talented executive.

As the President and Director at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition Michael oversaw the HR department and was my direct manager for the majority of his tenure with Integrative Nutrition. Michael brought much stability and structure to the organization with his strategic recruitment of senior level executives and his design and implementation of the annual performance evaluation. Through Michael’s discovery in skip-level meetings, he understood the need for clear communication which was most visibly reflected in his always open office door approach. In addition, Michael created company-wide quarterly calls where he defined organizational goals and reviewed achievements from the past quarter as well as any upcoming highlights or changes. His philosophy is to include the staff in decisions where appropriate which created a united and cohesive work environment. Michael leads through tried and true experience and clear direction. He is approachable, methodical in his work and offers 100% effort to each endeavor.

I had the privilege of working with Michael at IIN for the majority of 2013 – a period I would describe as nothing short of a significant turnaround for the company, which can be attributed directly to Michael’s leadership, vision, commitment to enacting lasting change, and ability to identify, develop and recruit talent. Michael is one of the most seasoned and capable executives I’ve worked with in all my years. As President, he took the time to understand the organization and each of the departments and identify both strengths and areas for improvement before implementing much-needed healthy change. His background in technology was extremely helpful but I was most impressed by his depth and breadth of knowledge of how to run and grow a successful company. He has the ability to develop a strategy, effectively communicate it to his directs while cognizant of the dependencies, and then guide his team to achieve results. Michael’s ability to give healthy structure to a growing organization is a noteworthy positive as well. In periods of hyper-growth and the volatility that follows them, organizations can easily flounder – at IIN, I saw Michael develop an extremely impressive and successful performance management system as well as bring corporate communication to a new level. Employees across IIN had clarity on the direction of the business as well as the trajectory of their careers – and enjoyed access to Michael as well. In my position as head of Sales, I found Michael an invaluable resource. As a first-time manager of a large group, my management skills were shaped and honed by his well-developed, straightforward and thoughtful management style. His feedback was always both authentic and constructive and I could see he was as focused on developing me as a manager as he was the mission and revenues of the company. Thanks to Michael’s leadership, during my tenure at IIN the company enjoyed an amazing turnaround with both sales and revenues growing consistently. Strategically, the value of the brand grew exponentially as well as key partnerships were developed. Finally, thanks to focus on the user experience from the top down, the students of IIN were provided with a better product in every facet. His commitment to any project he undertakes is dedicated beyond question. I can attest to every attribute noted in his recommendations and highly recommend him for any executive leadership position. I would be nothing short of thrilled at the opportunity to work closely with Michael again and am thrilled to have found him as a mentor.