Michael is Vice President, Research & Innovation for Semex Alliance, a global dairy and beef breeding cooperative with sales of genetic products and services worldwide. Semex actively utilizes genetic, genomic and reproductive technologies to accelerate genetic progress for production, health and economic traits in cattle. From 1998-2017, Michael worked at Monsanto company, leading a range of R&D programs in animal and plant genetics & genomics, statistics, patent science and environmental & climate change modeling. Prior to joining Monsanto, he was an Assistant Professor in the Animal Breeding Department, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He obtained his Ph.D. in animal breeding and B.Sc. in animal science at the University of Guelph. Michael began his career in the Canadian dairy cattle breeding industry as a bull procurement expert and research coordinator of advance reproductive technology trials.