Michael Ellis MSc is career major crimes investigator, and is globally recognized as an expert on International crime assessments, especially related to organized crime engagement in illicit trade. As an inspirational leader, he remains a primary lead in global illicit trade enforcement investigations, capacity building efforts, and has an extensive International network in both private and public sectors across Europa, Africa, Asia and the Americas, bringing wide experience in providing risk assessments, historic case reviews and advising on solutions and remedies.

As a retired Assistant Director of Police at Interpol, and former Scotland Yard Detective he has travelled to over 120 countries to engage in meetings with political and public sector decision makers at the highest levels, seminars, training projects and trans-national criminal investigations.

His efforts at Interpol included management and coordination of INTERPOL’s global strategy, across 190 member countries, to fight against illicit trade and counterfeiting with a special focus on international law enforcement operations, IP capacity building and awareness raising. He oversaw a unit of 45 staff, including investigating police officers, analysts, intelligence officers, and a team of IP lawyers.

Under his leadership, INTERPOL coordinated some of the largest IP-based enforcement actions, training, and capacity building programs across Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe and South America. He was pivotal in the development of the first ever INTERPOL-directed enforcement activities in the Middle East Region, engaging with National enforcement stakeholders in Qatar, UAE, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait, among others, where he cooperated extensively with the United Arab League on IP-related matters.

He managed, produced, and edited the release of INTERPOL’s first ever Illicit Trade Handbook and coordinated INTERPOL’s first ever public media campaign, launched across 80 INTERPOL countries, titled “Turn Back Crime,” which aimed to raise awareness to law enforcement stakeholders and the public-at-large to the links with IP crime and other serious.

He has written and presented extensively on organized crime topics, and now acts as an International Advisor on Criminal Trade methods, where he helps initiatives to raise awareness to the influences brought by the involvement of organized crime.

With a focus on training and capacity building he is also the Chairman of the International IP Crime Investigators College, a learning platform that provides blended learning to over 17,000 students globally.

He is a Fellow of Michigan State University A-CAPP Centre, which is a Global center of excellence, where he provides support in providing a comprehensive portfolio of research projects and outreach activities aimed at providing industry and governmental partners evidence-based lessons for preventing and responding to product counterfeiting, IP protection and brand protection issues.

He is Senior Advisor to the Swiss based ‘Cross-border Research Association’, CBRA, which is an independent research institute which advises the EU Commission, on advanced supply chain security, crime prevention, risk management, coordinated border management, and public-private co-operation research, training and consulting in the context of global supply chains and logistics systems.

Michael has a Master’s degree in Social Science, where he specifically researched the extensive links between organized crime illicit trade and counterfeiting.

He is the Director and founder of Ellis & Associates Ltd a consultancy service that provides Global support in investigations, training and capacity building.