Michael started EthicalJobs.com.au in 2009, having previously started two NFPs and another social enterprise. Realising there wasn't a job-search site for "people like me", he launched the website in May 2009 on a wing and a prayer.
Michael previously founded and edited the People & Planet: Social Justice & Environment Diary and Calendar, which he published from 2007 to 2013; founded Global Trade Watch, which monitored the social and environmental impacts of global trade and advocated for fair trading systems; wrote and co-directed the 2007 documentary Squeezed: The Cost of Free Trade in the Asia Pacific; and lectured in community development at a Melbourne TAFE.