Michael Nichols Email & Phone Number

Raleigh, Nc, Us

Raleigh, North Carolina, United States

Served as head of global corporate strategy, corporate development, M&A, and partnerships.• Led and coordinated global, cross-functional teams through all phases of the M&A process, including due diligence, negotiations, and management of consultants.

Raleigh, North Carolina, United States

Led the global venture capital group, served as director for internal ventures, instituted a new global innovation process, acted as a board observer for multiple portfolio companies.• Oversaw all aspects of the venture capital team including strategic-innovation-thesis definition, sourcing and screening, due diligence, term-sheet structure and negotiations, partnership structure (e.g. JDA), and post-deal board participation for the entire investment portfolio.• Created company-wide venture validation and innovation process.• Served as a stakeholder for internal digital ventures and as an observer for external portfolio companies.• Provided due diligence for potential M&A deals.• Led Africa venture activities, including strategy, investments, partnerships, and the development of incubation programs.

London, England, United Kingdom

Singapore, Singapore

Led Bosch Global Accelerator Program team of senior consultants in partnership with lean-startup experts from UC Berkeley, coaching over 300 innovation teams with over 1000 participants from 20 countries, developing content to validate business models quickly and efficiently, establishing innovation metrics and KPIs for go/no-go decisions, freeing up over $250M via successful invalidation and producing 21 new ventures with the potential to scale into multimillion-Euro businesses. The program has been awarded the Impact Award (2019) and Best Corporate Accelerator Europe (2021) and featured in Harvard Business Review, Osterwalder’s The Invincible Company, and in a Berkeley Haas Case study.

Stuttgart Area, Germany

Directed business model innovation in Bosch Global through the Bosch Global Accelerator Program, the Bosch Innovation Framework, the Bosch Business Model Innovation Training Academy, and organizational ambidexterity projects.• Designed the Bosch corporate innovation process called the Bosch Innovation Framework in a team of cross-functional directors and managers, drastically changing how innovation projects are tested and validated on the market by introducing innovation criteria, design thinking, agile development, and lean startup.• Created a business-model assessment to measure the attractiveness and maturity of new and existing business ventures, conducted it on over 50 global innovation projects both internally and externally (M&A), fundamentally altering how investments are made in innovation projects across Bosch.

Farmington Hills, Michigan

Spearheaded business model innovation in Bosch North America for existing and new areas of business with state-of-the-art methods and coaching approaches.• Conducted strategic business field analyses and market scans in close cooperation with involved divisions and corporate departments.• Created Robert Bosch North American innovation and strategy training portfolio to professionalize Bosch associate innovation toolset and foster an innovation culture in the region.

Greenville, South Carolina Area

Bosch AutomotiveCross-functional role in logistics. Production leveling, component planning, Plan for Every Part (PFEP), label compliance projects.Bosch Power ToolsConsolidated the total figures of the Power Tools division and supported business units by reporting and analyzing major key data. CIP project optimized freight and duty tracking, including improved allocation methods and HTS compliance..

Lake Buena Vista, Fl

Conducted forecasting and variance analyses of financial and staffing data using Excel and SAP. Developed capital authorization requests for the Attractions and Entertainment Capital Division of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.• Organized and wrote capital authorization requests for Attractions and Entertainment upcoming projects ranging from $900K to $900M. • Partnered with the Custodial line of business to conduct an analysis of outsourced versus in-house labor contracts, identifying a savings opportunity of over $2M.• Developed and delivered a $2.5M capital project to senior Finance executives – coordinated with Project Team to gather operating/maintenance expenses, Workforce Management Team to calculate labor expenses (incremental FTE’s), and Capital Reporting Team to determine write-offs and capital/expense allocations.• Executed monthly/yearly forecasting for $8.5M budget in support of Global Park Operations, including tracking and projecting headcount/labor requirements.• Coordinated with various departments (e.g. Capital Planning, Facilities Operations, Entertainment, WDI, Attractions, etc.) to create NPV/NPC Excel models that simulated future cash flows by tracking capital investments and operating expenses. • Successfully completed training at Disney University in Finance Fundamentals, SAP, and Advanced Excel.

Led and supervised Russia market intelligence research team for Bloomin’ Brands International.• Directed market intelligence analytics for possible expansion of Bloomin’ Brands into emerging markets. • Collected and synthesized relevant data to define market opportunities and challenges for emerging markets.• Presented research findings to senior executives using PowerPoint to recommend market penetration strategies.

Delivered individualized language instruction for corporate and governmental clients, including BMW, A.T. Kearney, Siemens, and the Finanzamt (German IRS). Led classroom and one-on-one sessions for over 100 clients, including senior executives.• Worked on-site at various corporate headquarters (e.g., Pro7, Giesecke and Devrient) with executives and administrators, teaching business presentation and negotiation skills.• Developed models to overcome cognitive interference from the German language to facilitate language acquisition process. • Consistently achieved high level of client satisfaction, obtaining repeat business and referrals, which led to a more than 2X increase in student volume year-over-year.

Delivered Russian language instruction to classes of up to 30 university students – Russian 101 / 102.• Designed course syllabi based on the latest psycholinguistic models which capitalize on the cognitive processes that native speakers of languages undergo as children. • Created in-class exercises and developed written and verbal examinations to effectively measure proficiency.• Coordinated with department heads and peer instructors to ensure consistency and share best practices.

Master In Business Administration, Business Administration And Management, General, 3.86

Activities and Societies: Beta Gamma Sigma, Phi Kappa PhiGMAT: 710

Master Of Arts (Ma), Russian Studies; Moscow, 4.0

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Russian And Eastern European Area Studies, 4.0

Activities and Societies: Phi Beta KappaElected to Phi Beta Kappa for outstanding academic performance Elected Vice President.

High School Diploma