Mike is the Founder & Managing Director of Ark, offering government affairs and public policy strategy to organizations ranging from enterprise cloud to defense tech that encounter the government as their customer, regulator, or competitor. Mike is also a Venture Scout for Alumni Ventures’ US Strategic Tech fund and a Sr. Advisor to Mavence, the leading global executive search firm for government affairs and public policy leaders headquartered in Brussels. Prior to founding Ark, Mike was Okta’s first Head of US & Canadian Federal Government Affairs and was elected Executive Chair of the Veterans Community @Okta employee resource group. Prior to Okta, Mike set-up and led US and global government affairs functions at Access Partnership, Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI), and Fujitsu Limited (NIKKEI:FJTSY) and held non-profit board seats on the Enterprise Cloud Coalition, Information Technology Industry Council, and the U.S. Information Technology Office. Earlier in this career, Mike served as a national security aide to a U.S. congressman and was twice a presidential appointee in the Pentagon. A veteran of Operation Inherent Resolve, he spent a decade as an Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy's Information Warfare Corps where he led sailors and civilians, including as an US Africa Command division officer, strike warfare department head, and underway as a deployed carrier air wing Targeteer. Mike holds a dual-bachelor’s from Penn State and master’s from the US Naval War College, Poznan University of Economics in Poland, and the University of Exeter in England, in addition to several international data protection certifications. Mike has participated in a variety of emerging leaders programs at the Council on Foreign Relations, Center for a New American Security, Heritage Foundation, Atlantik Brucke, and the German Marshall Foundation. He earned the Eagle Scout rank in his youth and volunteers locally.