Mike is a mature part-time osteopathic student at the UCO. He holds qualifications in Sports Science and a Master of Public Administration and has a wealth of relevant life and public sector work experience including a period as a school governor and extensive knowledge of safeguarding and community partnerships.
Within the public sector, Mike was a police officer for 30 years in the Metropolitan Police Service, 28 years of which he served as a detective. Mike's career spanned various London Boroughs including Southwark and the West End. He conducted multi-stakeholder organisation-wide reviews into human trafficking and violence against women and girls and their associated change programmes. Mike pioneered safeguarding children in county line gangs, forming a strategic partnership across Local Authorities, NHS, Probation Service, charities, faith groups and others. This work was recognised nationally, cementing safeguarding children in these gangs as a public health risk and resulted in Mike's selection as the first Home Office National Coordinator for the Ending Gangs and Youth Violence programme, and as a peer reviewer to other police forces nationally. It also led to him being selected for a role within "Trident" (Metropolitan Police's Guns and Gangs Command) where, as a Detective Superintendent, he led teams investigating shootings and firearms offences, then additionally homicide teams pan-London, kidnaps, organised crime and finally Counter Terrorism which involved leading London's CT response at ports and borders with national and international responsibilities too.
Mike's commitment to osteopathy is derived both from his previous work experience and through the health challenges he has witnessed in those around him, especially seeing how these worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since retiring from the police force in October 2023, Mike combines his osteopathic studies with working as a Level 5 Soft Tissue Therapist in a multi-disciplinary clinic and continuing to apply his Police learning on a consultancy basis. Any spare time is given to his family, sports, gardening and travelling.