RECOMMENDATIONS

Comments from people I've worked with.

A technical executive who understood the business side and was able to manage the integration of technology that fit with business objectives.

Steve Brown

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.

Steve Brown
SVP Business Development at Envoy Global
Steve worked with Michael at Monster Worldwide

Has a keen business sense and is well known for quickly identifying the context of a situation and offering an appropriate solution.

Joe Vaccarella
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

Joe Vaccarella
SVP Platform Sales & Strategy at TMP Worldwide
Joe reported directly to Michael at TMP Worldwide

He is fair, incredibly hardworking and leads by example. In short, he is a great top executive.

Vernon Church

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.

Vernon Church
Chief Business Operations Officer
Vernon reported directly to Michael at the Institure for Integrative Nutrition

He is intelligent and committed in his work, a respectful and motivating manager, and a natural leader.

Aly Levy Dworin
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

Aly (Levy) Dworin
Director of Finance at Hanweck Associates, LLC
Aly reported directly to Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

It’s not often you find a leader that you fully respect, trust, and admire – I found just that in Michael

Blair Badenhop

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.

Blair Badenhop
Brand Strategist / Copywriter / Podcast Host
Blair reported directly to Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Thanks to Michael’s leadership, during my tenure at IIN the company enjoyed an amazing turnaround with both sales and revenues growing consistently.

Holly Singh
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

Holly Singh
Global Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign Manager at Citi
Holly reported directly to Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Truly unique and effective leader that guides his executives and lets them grow by trusting in their experience and instincts.

Suzanne Hopkins

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.

Suzanne Hopkins
Director, Product Sales at Comcast Cable
Suzanne reported directly to Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

An excellent partner and consistently goes well beyond what is expected.

Olivia Melman

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.

Olivia Melman
Manager, Recruiting Operations at DigitalOcean
Olivia was a client of Michael’s

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.

Heather Neufeld
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

Heather Neufeld
Regional Studio Director at 305 Fitness
Heather reported directly to Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Michael leads through tried and true experience and clear direction. He is approachable, methodical in his work and offers 100% effort to each endeavor.

Kate Cody
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

Kate Cody
Human Resources Director at Sugar Hill Capital Partners
Kate reported directly to Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

A diligent professional who strives to lead by example. He treats his partners with respect and continuously works to provide excellence.

Lou Messercola

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.

Lou Messercola
Managing Director, IT Consulting at Solomon Page Group
Michael was a client of Lou’s

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.

Daniel Munter
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,

Daniel Munter
Product Owner at Johnson & Johnson
Daniel worked for Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Michael is a dedicated leader who works with integrity, honesty, and is a valuable person to have in your corner.

Sharon Stevens
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

Sharon Stevens
Marketing Manager at ACA Compliance Group
Sharon worked with Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Discussions were forthright, professional, personable and mutually beneficial…IIN has been an excellent partner.

Judi Broida

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.

Judi Broida Ph.D
Provost at Maryland University of Integrative Health
Judi was a client of Michael’s

He was instrumental in aligning the various work-streams during acquisition due diligence…allowed us to mitigate risk and manage costs for the company.

Jennifer Wallen

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.

Jennifer Wallen
Director Strategic Sourcing at Thomson Reuters
Jennifer and Michael worked together at Thomson Reuters

Michael’s help has been invaluable. Michael is very bright, extremely dedicated, and incredibly focused on quality.

Spencer Giacalone
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

Spencer Giacalone
Principal Network Architecture at Microsoft
Spencer worked with Michael but at different companies

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.

Dalia Hierro
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

Dalia Hierro
Product Development & Strategy Executive
Dalia reported directly to Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Michael is a self-motivated, strategic executive who always delivered.

Mark Travi

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.

Mark Travi
CFO at Early Warning Services
Mark was senior to Michael at Monster Worldwide but didn’t manage him directly

He is very adaptable to change and knows that an organization must transform over time to survive.

Gary Janos
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

Gary Janos
AVP, Operations at Orasi Software
Gary reported directly to Michael at TMP Worldwide

Strong entrepreneurial spirit, takes ownership and leadership, in small or big business settings.

Henry Hu

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.

Henry Hu
IBM Corporate Development Executive
Henry and Michael were students together at Columbia Business School

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.

Amanda Chin
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

Amanda Chin
VP Marketing at Institute for Integrative Nutrition
Amanda reported directly to 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.

Uri Zelmanovich
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

Uri Zelmanovich
Vice President Finance at Early Warning Services
Uri reported directly to Michael at TMP Worldwide

He is a consummate leader and visionary, always challenging and motivating his team towards success and constant improvement.

Jerry Cuppari
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

Jerry Cuppari
Vice President, Global IT at TMP Worldwide
Jerry reported directly to Michael at TMP Worldwide

He provided keen technology insight as well as clear direction to his team, resulting in an improved and cost efficient technology infrastructure.

David Bedard
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

David Bedard
VP, Global Business Technologies & Operations at Monster Worldwide
David worked with Michael at Monster Worldwide

Always makes it a point to understand the business’s needs and ensures that his technology roadmaps add value to the various business units.

Cecil Mathew
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

Cecil Mathew
VP, Business and Financial Technology Systems at TMP Worldwide
Cecil reported directly to Michael at TMP Worldwide

He understands how to strike a balance between longer-term strategic issues and the pragmatic day-to-day decisions so that both are achieved.

Robert Pravder
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

Robert Pravder
Former CFO at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition
Robert reported directly to Michael at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

His passion toward building an executive team and growing the company was infectious.

John Boehmer
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

John Boehmer
Managing Director at Accelent, Inc.
Michael was a client of John’s

His 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.

Vikram Menon
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

Vikram Menon
CTO at Petplan Pet Insurance
Vikram reported directly to Michael at TMP Worldwide

He acted as a change agent, quickly establishing relationships and successfully influencing processes as he worked across the organization.

Linda Krummel

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.

Linda Krummel
Senior Director, IT/MIS Mergers & Acquisitions at Thomson Reuters
Linda worked with Michael at Thomson Reuters