As Director of the BRC for the last decade, Michael is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operational activities of the BRC and works closely with academic units including the Vice Provost for Research, academic deans, directors, department heads, faculty, staff and students as well as academic leaders from other institutions leasing space in the BRC. As a subsidiary of Rice, the BRC is part of the Center for Collaborative Research (CCR) and interacts on occasion with the CCR board. Specifically, the Director plans, develops, and implements strategies for operational activities to support success in research and inter-institutional collaborations that encompass the BRC and Rice University enterprise within established budgets and timelines and assures appropriate management, service delivery, and reporting for various activities occurring within the BRC.

Prior to coming to Rice, Michael worked for 26 years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).  There he served as the Director of Operations for the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology for sixteen years, and the Director of Operations and System Administration for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) for ten years.  Michael was one of the first persons hired at the NCSA and helped build the center from its inception.  Prior to working at UIUC, Michael worked for the Control Data Corporation (CDC) for twelve years in various management capacities.