Michael is President of The Maritime Alliance (TMA) – a non-profit industry association founded in 2007. Its Mission Statement is “Promoting Sustainable, Science-Based Ocean & Water Industries”. Originally focused on San Diego – the largest US BlueTech cluster – it has a growing number of members nationally and internationally. TMA is a Strategic Partner with the US Dept. of Commerce and organizer of the 1st ever US Maritime Technology Export Initiative. TMA is helping promote the creation of regional clusters globally and in 2017 helped form the BlueTech Cluster Alliance with 9 leading BlueTech clusters from 7 countries.
Michael has a BA from the University of Arizona and MA from Johns Hopkins University “School of Advanced International Studies” (SAIS) in Washington, DC. He sits on the Board of Directors of several organizations and is non-resident Senior Fellow focused on the Blue Economy at The Foreign Policy Institute at SAIS.