Mike has been Chief Executive of Westminster City Council since April 2008. Before that, he had been Chief Executive of Suffolk County Council from 2002, having previously been the Council's Director of Resource Management since 1999. He started his local government career with Cambridgeshire County Council in 1986, holding a variety of roles including being the Council’s Head of Finance.

He first started having to wear a tie to work, though, in Westminster, starting as a graduate trainee with the National Audit Office, with which he qualified as a CIPFA accountant. His first placements were in Piccadilly and Millbank. Before that he had been a long term student with a PhD in philosophy. He has held a number of non-executive directorships and was county chairman of the Princes Trust for Suffolk.