Michel has over 20 years of experience building lasting consumer brands at Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial environments in the US and internationally. He has a proven record of dramatically growing new and existing businesses through strategic acumen and creative brand-building, and possesses a unique combination of skills in business strategy, corporate marketing, consumer / technology product development, and entrepreneurship.

Michel is Founding Partner of The Radical Clarity Group (RCG), a strategy advisory firm that specializes in guiding companies to profitable growth through a fast proprietary process that brings focus to core story, clear objectives and actionable priorities. RCG has helped bring profitable, double digit growth to companies in the following industries: packaged goods, food and beverage wholesale, Hispanic health and wellness, online gaming, e-learning, digital publishing, social media, licensing, clean energy, sustainable construction and online retail.

He is cofounder of Palapa Azul, Inc., a company dedicated to bringing to the US high-quality ethnic Mexican food concepts. Palapa Azul’s line is comprised of super premium Mexican-style frozen desserts: ice creams, sorbets and frozen fruit bars. Since its market introduction, the line has achieved distribution in over 30 states and has been recognized as one of the notable entrants in the frozen desserts category, receiving coverage on national print media, radio, television and online. It is being sold at retailers such as Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Dean & Deluca, as well as at Costco and mass retailers such as H-E-B, Savemart and others.

Before working on Palapa Azul, Michel consulted for several companies in the specialty foods industry.

Previously, at The Walt Disney Company, he was responsible for launching and managing Disney’s most profitable online business, online travel, with full global P&L responsibility and general management oversight over the marketing, production, engineering, and business development functions. Also at Disney, he successfully launched, for Disney Consumer Products, the Company’s fifth retail brand, Mickey’s World, created exclusively for the travel retail marketplace and duty and tax-free markets worldwide.

While a senior executive at United Distillers and Vintners (a unit of Diageo, PLC), Michel lead the marketing function and re-positioned world-class beverage brands Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray and Dewars, achieving for them a decisive market share leadership in Latin American Markets.

Michel started his marketing career at Black & Decker in Latin America, where he launched and managed a number of product lines in the home improvement category.

Michel is a frequent guest lecturer at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, where he focuses on product innovation and branding. He is also founder of the Fine Foods Group, a networking group of 250+ specialty food companies in Los Angeles, who have joined forces to address issues affecting small food businesses in an increasingly competitive environment. He is also a business advisor at Pacific Community Ventures, a venture fund that develops and invests in businesses providing economic gains to low/moderate income (LMI) communities in California. PCV helps companies in traditionally overlooked areas to gain access to capital, business advice, and critical business resources that will accelerate company growth.

Michel has broad international work experience in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Born in Mexico, he is tri-cultural and fully trilingual in French, Spanish, and English and has working knowledge of the Italian language. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California and a Master of International Business degree from the University of San Diego. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.