Michael Brown

Michael is a founder and long-term managing-director of creative industries businesses with a specialisation in experiential marketing and sponsorship. His past successful ventures include Beatwax and MKTG / MKTG.com ‚Äì a joint venture with Dentsu which he guided to become an award-winning international marketing organisation with 32 offices in 20 countries.  He stepped down in December 2020 to found Asociat www.asociat.co.uk ‚Äì which he describes as a community partnerships agency helping brands to identify and actively address the needs of the communities they serve, and Home Kitchen: a not for profit restaurant launching in 2024 that will recruit and train homeless people for a career in hospitality, and featuring the two time Michelin star winning Adam Simmons as Executive Chef.  Michael realised that business can and should be kinder and inclusive after he successfully completed a crowd funding campaign to create and launch, what is thought to be, the world's first mental health drop-in centre inside a soup-kitchen. A social enterprise he now helps to lead.  He has a particular interest in the psychology of conflict and compromise.  This arose after he spectacularly fell out with his fellow shareholders in a business he led for a decade. The lessons learned gave rise to I Don't Agree; (Publisher: Harriman House) Michael's first book, which won GOLD at the Business Book Awards 2021. After a successful UK launch, the book also came out (Dec 2021) in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Tibet, Sri-Lanka and the Maldives. A Korean, Thai and an Estonian translation have been released in 2023. As a writer, Michael has regularly contributed thought leadership pieces to the Daily Telegraph, Management Today, Entrepreneur Magazine, Campaign Magazine, Edge, Grazia and Little Black Book.