Michael started his career in exhibition management in the early nineties as project manager for Deutsche Messe AG’s (Hannover, Germany) overseas arm, Hannover Messe International. He was responsible for the inception and management of some of Deutsche Messe’s events in South East Asia, Vietnam and China (eg CeMat Asia, PTC Asia…). From 1994, based in Singapore, he spearheaded the opening and the management of Deutsche Messe’s offices in Asia and Australia and developed the business further, both by establishing new brands and negotiating cooperations with local and overseas partners. After a brief stint as managing director of Hannover Fairs Turkey where he was responsible for Deutsche Messe’s acquisitions of events such as SODEX, ANKIROS and WIN, Michael joined Koelnmesse 2002 to build up their network of companies in Asia-Pacific from scratch. Again based in Singapore, he was then overseeing Koelnmesse’s companies in China, Hongkong, Macao, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. Koelnmesse is now organizing app. 20 events in Asia per year, with leading regional trade fairs such as Interzum Guangzhou, Thaifex- World of Food Asia, CIHS, IDEM Singapore etc.. After the completion of his contract with Koelnmesse, in 2017 Michael established ‚Trade Show Experts‘, a Singapore based boutique consultancy and M&A firm catering for the MICE industry. Trade Show Experts is closely working with ‚Fair Relations GmbH, the long established Germany based consultancy, also specialising in M&A in the events industry.Finally, in January 2019, Michael acquired Fair Relations GmbH and is now running this company together with the founder, Wolfgang Schellkes. Michael holds a master’s degree in economic geography. His exposure to Asia dates back to the mid-Eighties when he was granted a post graduate scholarship at Fudan University, Shanghai.