What Clients Say

"Mike has been one of my closest collaborators in advancing the Market Systems Development for Employment (MSD4E) work both within Mercy Corps and in the field as a whole over the last three years. Together we have co-founded and led the global MSD4E Community of Practice, undertaken research on the state of MSD4E across diverse donor and implementor portfolios, and run numerous conference streams and learning events. Mike is deeply technical and is smart, patient and experienced enough to get into the technical weeds with anyone, but he balances that skillset with being pragmatic about the realities of implementation, humble enough to learn from colleagues, and able to communicate in accessible ways. He is one of the strongest facilitators I have ever worked with, and I have learned so much from how he creatively works with teams to develop learning opportunities both within and between institutions. If I ever need someone for technical work on applying the MSD approach to skills, or someone with top-tier skills in facilitating virtual or in-person learning, I immediately think of Mike. One of my favourite things about working with Mike is how invested he is in his client work, which he sees as part of a bigger portfolio in a field he genuinely cares about. This means he brings so much more than just his immediately obvious skillset to any work he does – he stays up to date with innovations in the field; is well-connected to project teams, advisors and researchers; and is constantly applying learning from work with one client to what he does with another. This shows, in both the quality of work he produces and in how energising it is to work with him. Mike is also really easy to work with. He is transparent, collaborative, straightforward, responsive, optimistic, reliable, and good at taking feedback. He is also generous with his knowledge and connections. Frankly, I think of him more as a colleague, teammate and collaborator than as a short-term consultant. I have learned so much from working with him, and quite simply we would not have been able to achieve the learning, cross-agency collaboration or growing consensus on MSD4E best-practice that we have thus far in the MSD4E field without him."