Before founding Clear Path Market Research, Michael developed his skills during a 20 year career at top rated consumer research and sales forecasting firm BASES (now part of the world’s largest market research company – Nielsen).  The ethos of BASES was to be the premier supplier of primary research on new product innovations in the consumer packaged goods industry.  Their competitive edge encompassed three areas:

• The highest quality of client service.  
• Extracting the greatest value from the data. 
• A can-do attitude and employees who genuinely cared about what they were doing. 

But beneath all of these points of difference lay something more important – attitude.  BASES employees genuinely cared about doing a good job and would never sacrifice quality, even if it meant higher costs.

It is often quoted that to become a true expert in something, you must practice it for at least 10,000 hours.  Michael estimates that throughout his career he has practiced Sales Forecasting and Market Research for close to 40,000 hours! He was hand picked to lead the training efforts for new Analysts hired at BASES from 2001-2003 when the company expanded its business throughout Europe.  The manager that chose him, Mitch Barns, is now CEO of Nielsen.  Michael’s colleagues and clients most appreciated his ability to explain complex analyses in a clear and concise manner that enabled all stakeholders to understand, and thus utilize, the key findings and conclusions from the research.  

Michael left what is now Nielsen BASES on good terms in 2011 to enroll in a full-time MBA program at CU Boulder. He graduated in 2013 and still happily resides in Boulder, CO. 

During his MBA, Michael interned at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), co-authoring two market research reports for the Wind Energy team.  Both of these reports were published and can be found here and here. 

It was during his internship at NREL that Michael discovered a passion for Colorado industries. With his expert-level skill set, recent MBA education, and the entrepreneurial spirit of Boulder, he chose to create Clear Path Market Research.