Career Biography
Michael is currently the Executive Vice President (EVP) of Legal and Group General Counsel at bp plc. He leads the global teams responsible for executing the legal and ethics & compliance strategies across bp and is a member of the bp Leadership Team. He has significant experience managing transactional and operational legal risk, building and leading teams, advising on regulatory/compliance matters, and transforming legal teams using technology and new operating models. Mike joined the Houston office of bp in June 2011 from the Washington, DC office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom where he practiced in the firm’s Antitrust and Competition law group.
Prior to his current role, Mike’s held a number of roles across bp including leading legal teams responsible for both the upstream and downstream businesses as well as the low carbon businesses. He has also led a global team responsible for ethics and compliance across bp. In 2013, he was a finalist for Global Competition Review’s Corporate Counsel of the Year award and in 2014 was honored by being selected for Legal 500’s inaugural list of top 100 Corporate Counsel in the United States. The Financial Times, Yahoo Finance and INvolve have named him one of the top 100 LGBT Executives in the world. He is a frequent speaker on legal, ethics and compliance, transformation, and diversity and inclusion topics. Michael received a BS in Economics and a BA in Political Science from Arizona State University and his law degree with honors from Georgetown University Law Center.
Mike currently resides in London with his husband, Brian (who owns a travel business) and two dogs. Mike and Brian are passionate about travel (having visited over 85 countries) and learning about other cultures. When not traveling or working, you’ll often find Mike with a glass of wine or enjoying a nice meal with friends or enjoying the outdoors with his two dogs – Winston and Franklin.