Michael leads our Agriculture Practice in EMEA and has more than 15 years of experience serving food and agricultural companies around the globe on topics such as business strategy, commercial excellence, M&A, digital farming, and innovation. Michael has served clients in practically every agriculture inputs sector—from fertilizers, crop protection, and seeds to irrigation and machinery. He also helps food and food ingredients companies on topics ranging from sustainable agricultural sourcing to strategy. Michael has meaningful and recent experience as an investor, operator, and board member in the agriculture and food space. Michael is the trusted advisor for several fast-growth agriculture and food-tech innovators, with a focus on their go-to-market strategies.
Examples of his recent client work include the following:
- supporting a global crop protection and seeds company in a large-scale, post-merger integration and performance transformation program; led the definition of the target operating model for the combined business, delivering more than $300 million in synergy value
- supporting a leading agriculture inputs player in a global innovation scan for agricultural technologies addressing unmet needs across eight industry segments (including biologics, soil management, water solutions, application equipment)
- supporting a global fertilizer player in the design of its digital engagement model and farmer experience design; led customer experience hackathons across smallholder and professional markets to identify farmer pain points and redesign the journey using digital tools
- supporting a leading irrigation and fertigation solutions company after PE acquisition in the development of a 100-day plan, and implementation planning of a global growth strategy with a focus on high potential crops and digital offering
- supporting a Southeast Asian specialty fertilizer player in the development of its specialty nutrients commercial effort, including defining focus products, geographies, distribution approach, and digital engagement model with the aspiration to double the business in three years
- facilitating a global beer manufacturer’s multinational team in the creation and initial implementation of procurement strategy for raw brewing materials (including corn, barley, wheat, corn syrup, etc.); built a detailed roadmap for the strategic initiatives and transition of procurement responsibility from regional hubs to the global organization, enabling the client to save $18 million annually
- leading a global growth strategy for an organic ingredients player that included assessment of multiple organic agricultural value chains from field to fork (e.g., cocoa, coffee, citrus, sugar cane, and many others) and recipe quality/consistency implications in key CPG products.
