Mike brings decades of IT-intensive intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial experiences and insights to his teaching, writing, research and consulting in the College of Business at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Worldwide.

His experiences with highly secure, auditable systems started in the US Air Force, where for many years he helped design, build, and operate national security space mission systems. As national and international security imperatives called for greater insight into the activities of non-nation-state threat actors and risks, Mike’s roles and experiences evolved.

He has taught and developed graduate and undergraduate courses and programs in information security and assurance, management information systems, and intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and international crime and justice for not only two US universities but also the senior military leadership colleges of the US and the UK. He has also served as an accreditor and reviewer for similar programs across NATO senior leadership schools. Mike has also been an advisor on science and technology policy to the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee, Ministry of Justice, and Defence Science and Technology Laboratories, helping them to evolve an operational and policy consensus relating topics  from cryptography and virtual worlds, through the burgeoning surveillance society, to the proliferation of weapons of mass disruption (not just “destruction”) affected global, regional, national, and personal security. For a time, this had him sometimes known as the UK’s nonresident expert on outer space law.

Mike has a Master of Science in Computer Science, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, with a minor in Electrical Engineering, both from Illinois Institute of Technology; and a Master of Arts in Defence Studies from King’s College, London. He is a graduate of the Federal Chief Information Officer program at National Defense University and the Program Manager’s Course at Defense Systems Management College. He’s been a start-up business owner, consultant to small businesses, and as a long-time hactivist, he works with informal teams applying blockchain technologies and sovereign identity mechanisms as part of efforts around the world to respond to Covid-19.

At the request of (ISC)2, Mike authored a two-book set about their Systems Security Certification Program. The first book, the Study Guide, helps the reader learn how to do the day-to-day tasks that challenge a systems security specialist; the second book, the SSCP Common Book of Knowledge, provides an encyclopedic desk reference — the sort of book you need to get your systems back online, when you can’t just go to the Web and look it up. Mike’s experiences with financial forensics, intelligence data analysis, audit, and control inform and shape examples and illustrations in both books.

Mike and his wife Nancy currently call Wexford, Ireland their home. Living abroad since the end of the last century, they find new perspectives, shared values, and wonderful people wherever they go.