Ian Michael | Professor Of Marketing
Zayed University

My professional and academic experience spans over 40 years, I worked in varied industries e.g., Travel & Tourism, Banking & Finance, Hospitality, Advertising, Pharmaceutical, Transportation & Logistics, where I held senior positions, my industry experience is in Australia and India. I joined academia in 1999, as Lecturer Marketing at Victoria University, Melbourne. I moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2004, when I joined Zayed University. I am still working at Zayed University as an Associate Professor – Branding, Innovation and Marketing. I like to consider himself a “Globalista”, (a global person), I am a Senior Fellow at University of South Pacific (USP), where I teach the MBA program. During my tenure with USP I have visited and taught at the Cook Islands, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Tonga campuses. I am a visiting Professor at the International Black Sea University (IBSU), in Tbilisi, Georgia, Aalto University, Finland, and Victoria University, Melbourne. I also work in business consulting, and research, in a global environment a leader in global consulting and research e.g., Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Germany, Georgia, India, Nepal, and USA. I am a a Certified trainer for The Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) UK, the ifs School of Finance (incorporated by Royal Charter) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), UK, further I am a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute (FAMI) and a mentor for Emerging Markets with the AMI. I am passionate about research in destinations and destination branding, and have worked on various destination branding projects e.g., Brand UAE, the rebranding of Goa, Mewar Brand (Udaipur) to name a few. I am passionate about genealogy research, and I have produced an award winning 70-minute documentary titled “An Gorta Mor: Passage to India, a non-fiction story of Irish migration to India from Ireland during the Irish potato famine from 1847-52. I have a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) and MBA (Master of Business Administration) qualification from Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. I am a qualified Stevens Initiative COIL course Professor (https://www.stevensinitiative.org/announcing-the-second-cohort-of-stevens-initiative-connected-classrooms/), currently completing a course the International Teaching Program at INSEAD (https://www.itp-schools.com/). I am on the Board of Directors for a new start up college in Melbourne, a committee member with Emirates Down Syndrome Foundation (EDSA) a not-for-profit organization based, a jury member for the dispute committee of the Advertising Business Group (ABG). In 2014 I was conferred the ‘Al-Safeer’ award (Dubai Ambassador) by Dubai Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM).