WebServices dot org

Theme: Business & Web Services
Title: Vice President, Web Services, IBM Global Services

Michael is the Vice President of Web Services for IBM's Global Services Division, and views Web Services as the critical enabling technology for IBM's On Demand vision. "Combined with Service Oriented Architecture, Web Services can live up to the promise of a component-based business design," Michael says.

Michael has a broad background which makes him well suited to bring new concepts to market. He has held a variety of sales, marketing and management positions within a diverse range of industries, including the high-technology sector, consumer packaged goods, media and entertainment and advertising industries.

Michael joined IBM in 1996, in what was then the Personal Systems Group, and left at the beginning of 2000 to start an Internet venture. From 1996 to 2000, Michael kick-started marketing and sales efforts for IBM's Intel-based server by creating the predecessor to today's xSeries, the IBM Netfinity. In 1998, Michael articulated a long-term technical vision for the platform through the creation of the X-architecture that is a technical blueprint for bringing mainframe attributes to the Intel server marketand which IBM continues to follow today. The X-architecture became the foundation for the subsequent re-branding to the IBM eSERVER xSeries.

Called a "Brand Builder" by BRANDWEEK, and quoted extensively in BusinessWeek and other industry publications, Michael's efforts resulted in an increase in sales to $3 billion from $1 billion in three years for the Netfinity hardware platform.

During his three-year hiatus from IBM, Michael partnered with a top engineer from EMC to start an Internet venture that targeted media and entertainment companies. As Chief Marketing Officer, he was responsible for the venture's sales and marketing efforts and closed deals with the NFL, Arista Records, the UK Premiership, and David Bowie, among others. He secured publicity in the Wall Street Journal, among other technical and business publications. Not uncommon in the "dotcom" business, "we had difficulty stabilizing the technology and failed to close a second round of financing during the Internet-bust," says Michael.

Recruited to join PanAmSat, a leading global satellite communications company as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management, Michael restructured PanAmSat's marketing efforts, its market segmentation and re-mixed the company's focus on its core product portfolio. The position provided experience with the satellite industry's efforts to develop and market existing capacity and new data and video applications to both the telecommunications and broadcast industries.

After PanAmSat was sold to News Corp. and before rejoining IBM, Michael spent eight months working as a strategic consultant to America Online, where he overhauled AOL's offline customer acquisition program with a goal of making it more efficient.

Prior to joining IBM in 1996, Michael gained consumer packaged goods and advertising agency experience at companies that included Cadbury-Schweppes/Dr. Pepper, Loews Corp. and Ogilvy & Mather. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising and Marketingfrom the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

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