Mike has been pivotal in transforming traditional companies into digital giants. For over two decades, he has been a catalyst for growth and transformation. Mike has a proven track record of creating new markets by understanding and anticipating technology inflection points and market disruptions. Using his unique blend of expertise in organizational dynamics, state-of-the-art operating models and a contemporary cultural ethos, Mike has successfully steered leadership teams into new business opportunities, while building strong operational foundations. He has founded, grown, scaled and sold multiple public and private technology companies.
A true business visionary, Mike has the heart of a technologist focused on real-world impact. With a passion for product ideation, design and development, Mike is focused on driving product value in nascent markets and disrupting the industry status-quo. At Maxtor, he introduced breakthrough product categories with the Maxtor OneTouch external storage backup solution and a Nearline hard disk drive product line, which ultimately defined their respective categories. At HGST, he championed the development of helium-based hard disk drives, resulting in one of the company’s most valuable innovations and setting an industry standard, driving nearly $4 billion in annual revenue.
Mike has led the successful turnarounds of multiple brands, including Maxtor and HGST. He founded Fabrik, raising over $85 million in venture capital and realized over $175 million in revenue run-rate in just three years resulting in a successful sale of the company to HGST. Mike’s deep understanding of market and technology drivers guided strategic investments and/or acquisitions in numerous technology leaders, including G-Technology, sTec, Virident, Tegile and Amplidata.
Mike was instrumental in Western Digital’s transformational $19 billion acquisition of SanDisk in 2016. The transaction was the catalyst for Mike and the leadership team to create a storage solutions company with global scale, extensive product and technology assets, and deep expertise in non-volatile memory. Mike led the successful integration of three Fortune 500 companies, SanDisk, Western Digital and HGST, to create a $20 billion data infrastructure leader, well positioned for long-term growth and value creation.
Ultimately, a growth mindset, re-shaping corporate culture, and creating high performing teams and organizations are bedrocks in Mike’s leadership style. Nothing is more critical to success for Mike than character and culture. It’s always about helping people, teams and companies be legendary. For over two decades, he has been a global business leader doing just that.