Michael did his PhD in agricultural economics at Cornell University (1973) before working as a research fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and economics consultant with the World Bank in East Africa. He was later CEO of a company seeking to create jobs using social finance called Citylife Ltd (now Allia Limited), co-founder of Equity for Africa, and also co-founder of Relational-Analytics Ltd based in UK for measurement of relationships in public and private sector organisations.