Michael Nicholson

Background

About Michael Nicholson

Seasoned Foreign Service Officer with over twenty years of professional experience in trade, economic growth, and market development. Experience fostering and leading teams in large, hierarchical missions; small, decentralized operating units; and complex, technical platforms spread across multiple countries. Executed budgets up to $750M/annually that clear large, multiyear pipelines in missions with abundant funding, have also directed-and fundraised for-resource-scarce units with minimal budgets chasing deep impacts and results. Very comfortable at the nexus of public policy and private investment: veteran of five (5) U.S. government agencies. I seek to bring a compelling joy to the workspace as a leader, a colleague, and a dedicated employee. After completing my doctorate from the University of Colorado, I worked in government, consulting, and academia, teaching undergraduate and graduate-level economics, business, and law while implementing projects in the Middle East and former Soviet Union. In 2010, I became a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development. In 2011, Governor Steve Beshear commissioned me as an Honorable Kentucky Colonel. In 2015, President Barak Obama commissioned me as a tenured career diplomat for the United States. My publication record includes peer-reviewed journal articles on trade, antitrust/competition policy, international tax reform, economic development, debt, foreign direct investment, intellectual property rights, and the privatization of WASH services. I have also written two books of creative non-fiction, covering my time living in Armenia 2003-06 and Liberia 2012-2014. I bring creative energy and the ability to develop long-term project goals and then develop teams to accomplish them. Language skills include French (2/2), Arabic (2/2), college Spanish, as well as conversational Armenian and Swahili. I carry a Top Secret clearance. I’m also a small business owner in Kentucky: Go Big Blue.