Thriday is the all-in-one financial management platform that eliminates financial admin by automating banking, accounting and tax. Thriday is perfect for sole traders, freelancers, gig workers, startups and all small business owners who hate admin.

Michael was responsible for all Digital sales - which covers Fareportal's consumer portfolio of websites and apps namely CheapOair and OneTravel.Michael managed a global team responsible for the end-to-end digital channels including product, design, strategy, development, and QA. After joining Fareportal, Michael helped build up the entire Digital practice, implemented a new product management process and oversaw a sharp increase in sales and revenue.• Grew Mobile web sales by 25% YOY and Mobile app sales by 17% YOY in a highly competitive market• Increased market share in Mobile sales by 6% and revenue by 12% YOY• Increased conversion rate by 10% YOY - even with a 30% increase in traffic including new lower cost channels• Oversaw new app marketing strategy for free and paid channels that doubled downloads per month to 200k• Grew team from 32 to 64 in 12 months working closely with recruitment and HR• Embedded new 'Think it, Build it, Ship it, Tweak it' product development strategy utilizing agile principles• Managed vendor relationships with Appsee, UX Cam, Amplitude and Branch• Spoke frequently at media events including live at the New York Stock Exchange with Cheddar TV• Caretaker for the Data Science and Business Intelligence team during leadership change• Presented at Monthly Board meetings, weekly company wide product updates and global leadership meetings

Skalata Ventures is a seed investment program designed to help early stage companies prepare to scale and grow into significant and sustainable businesses. Michael was a program coach on the first cohort of companies to enter the program.

The Generator is Monash University's central startup hub. The Generator was designed to bring new ideas to life, unlock new talents, and encourage an entrepreneurial career path. Michael was a Program Coach on the 2020 intake.

Michael co-founded one of Australia’s fastest growing online businesses, Parkhound, an online marketplace that connects drivers looking for parking, with property owners that have spare parking spaces. Having conceived the concept, Michael oversaw all facets of the company including product management and agile development of the site and apps. After establishing the brand and business model strategy in the early stages, Michael worked tirelessly on the product and also refining the operations function to scale the business, bringing in new hires and putting in a robust user centered design process. • Responsible for product P&L. Grew annual revenue from zero to AUD$4 million in 24 months• Implemented growth hacking strategy with a focus on organic channels such as referral and SEO• Acquired over 50,000 new members through low cost online marketing tactics• Recruited team of developers, product managers and implemented agile product design process• Product won numerous major awards including ABA - Best New Product and iAward• Parkhound iPhone app was featured as Best New App in the Apple App Store• Rejected three $400k investment offers on leading TV show 'Shark Tank'• Company was acquired in 2017 by Spacer

Advisor to the Venuemob leadership team on product development processes and new feature enhancements. Michael supported the company in defining and delivering a number of key changes to the website.

Early 2016, Michael was approached by General Assembly to present at a series of events on being a founder and starting a business.• Participated in Q&A session with five other startup founders as part of Startup Month• Presented at Zendesk sponsored General Assembly startup event.

Awarded an Entrepreneurial Fellowship by the University of Melbourne to complete the Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP). MAP was named the eighth best university business accelerator in the world for 2015. The rankings cover more than 400 incubation programs in over 70 countries.

In 2012, Michael joined forces with Euromoney to create a leading training program around the topic of mobile and digital innovation. With a focus on the banking, insurance and financial services, the 2 or 3 day course was targeted at C-level and executive level management. The program covered strategy development, process optimisation, organisation design and delivery management. • Developed program curriculum and course material in consultation with Euromoney consultants• Assisted in developing sales and marketing strategy for the course• Conducted training courses in London, Paris, Dubai and Yangon

Reporting into the Group Head of Devices, Michael oversaw a GBP£40 million program of developments across the Retail banking portfolio. Managing a wide variety of stakeholders across digital, cards, branch and the call centre, Michael implemented an award winning app, revised the operating model for prioritising and delivering new features from external business units, and also oversaw a successful rollout of acquisition communications into the branch and the call centre as part of the strategy to migrate more customers to the channel. • Gartner rated top UK Mobile Banking app and Top 10 ranked against global competition• Grew user base from 2.4 million to 4 million through innovative campaigns to non adopters• Built strong rapport with the call centre and branch to implement transaction migration plans• Complete overhaul of existing service, launching new product lines on new infrastructure• Presented at numerous conferences across the UK, Europe and Asia on mobile banking• Featured writer on Huffington Post, American Banker, Finextra and other leading publications

Michael contributed a number of featured articles for the Huffington Post that covered a broad range of topics including digital disruption, banking innovation, SOPA and changing customer needs. You can find links to a sample of these articles below.

Michael was appointed to head up the Mobile channel for the Retail banking group. Working closely with senior stakeholders at the Executive level Michael was able to develop a compelling vision for the service underpinned by key objectives aligned to the overall group strategy. Since taking on leadership of the channel, customer volumes grew by 300%, transactions were migrated from higher cost channels, and most importantly a stable, secure and robust platform for future growth was implemented. RBS is now considered the number one Mobile banking provider in the UK on the back of impressive app launches for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android. In conjunction Michael worked with key business and technology partners to significantly alter the delivery approach across the area with the implementation of an agile scrum methodology.• Managed budget of GBP£10m covering strategy, marketing, design and technology costs• Chair of Mobile Banking Steering Group and sponsor/business owner of the Retail programme• Achieved ambitious growth targets including tripling active users over 12 month period• Established strong working relationships with Apple, RIM, Google, Microsoft and Forrester• Managed strategic relationships with key partners Monitise and digital design agency AKQA• Conceived and sponsored the award winning ‘Get Cash’ service (cardless ATM withdrawal).

Michael took ownership for the development of a new Mobile banking strategy and operating model covering text-banking, web, and native smart phone applications for the Retail group. The role required extensive engagement with various parts of the organisation and strategic vendor mComm. Working closely with the Innovation department and various business units Michael was also the Business Representative for the ANZ goMoney application; a market leading native iPhone banking app that implemented a world first Person-to-Person payment process linking an account to a person’s mobile number.

Michael managed the implementation of a program of major enhancements to ANZ’s Retail and Business Internet Banking platforms across Australia and New Zealand. The changes included the introduction of targeted savings, credit and mortgage product offers leading to a new direct sales channel for the company. This was the first time the bank had accepted end-to-end product application and fulfilment online. New marketing and improved banner capabilities were also introduced using Omniture. The final phase was a complete site refresh, information architecture redesign and the launch of a new self service help centre. The changes were delivered in line with the launch of the new ANZ brand and logo and led to a significant increase in usability and customer satisfaction. Michael had direct ownership of the delivery team with over thirty full-time staff reporting through to him via multiple stream leads. The program was expected to deliver over $70 million in benefits over 5 years.

Michael managed the launch of the first Apple iPhone customised mobile banking solution that was available the day of the iPhone launch in Australia. The project utilised a pragmatic agile scrum development methodology to react to evolving customer requirements and Apple product launch dates. Michael successfully delivered the first online project developed and deployed under the agile methodology which represented an enormous departure from the legacy waterfall process in the area. The change was developed using a prototype and significant stakeholder interaction with fortnightly focus groups and build presentations. The agile approach allowed the project team to develop, test and drop new functionality into production as and when it was ready. The product was nominated for a CANNEX banking ‘Star Awards – Innovative Product or Service 2008’, and generated significant blog and technology media buzz on launch.

Involved from the concept stage for the replacement of an existing branch application using Siebel CRM software to drive greater product cross-sell.

Introduction of a new retail and commercial loans origination platform for use in the branch network.