Michael Richards Email & Phone Number

Franklin, MI, US

Greater Detroit Area

Founder and President of VPL, a management consultancy focused on technology-centered business strategy, product innovation, and services optimization. Clients have included IBM, Ford Motor Company, Monsanto, Comerica, Fidelity, startups such as Climate Interactive and Homeward Health, and several SaaS companies including Trubiquity, a SaaS provider.

Greater Detroit Area

As a Gartner Executive Partner, my mission is to assist technology and business executives to more effectively lead their organizations through Digital Business change, attain key business goals, and improve organizational performance.

Troy, Michigan

Responsible for leading corporate technology strategy, product development, professional services, SaaS operations, and strategically positioning the company with new solutions. Led new product design and strategy that led to subsequent sale of the company in March 2014 to Rocket Software..

Led IT Shared Services function including Infrastructure, Enterprise Applications (including SAP and Sharepoint), Architecture, and Security operations. Applied a more disciplined, systemic, strategic approach and delivered several strategic projects including a global SAP upgrade and global Sharepoint collaboration solution, significant Business.

Held succession of roles including Global CTO and Group CIO for Product Development. Led numerous transformation efforts including maturing the EA function, launching early cloud computing capabilities, establishing COEs and Product/Service Managers. Championed a variety of new services, innovation processes, and organizational performance improvements.

Member of the enterprise business development team for a SaaS offering. The company successfully grew to be sold several times and is now a part of Siemens PLM.

Champion and general manager for IBM entry into SaaS marketplace. Over career, held a variety of other roles in R&D, Consulting Services, and pre-Sales Technical Support.