Michael is a full time analyst at the GI-TOC in Cape Town as of January 2020. He is currently involved in work relating to illicit charcoal trading in East Africa and work in the firearms trade in South Africa.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Cape Town, as well as a Master of Laws in Criminology, Law and Society, also from the University of Cape Town. Among the projects he has worked on as a part time consultant for the GI-TOC last year included gang-state collusion in Nelson Mandela Bay, illicit tobacco trading in southern Africa, and firearms trading and pricing in South Africa.