Mike joined Sport England in November 2006. He leads Sport England's work: reaching out to young people which aims at get them doing sport in their own time and in their local communities; to get 300,000 further and higher education students doing more sport by 2012-1013 (part of Sport England's one million participation target); and the organisation’s engagement with local partners, in particular the interface with local government. He also takes responsibility for human resources and development.

Prior to joining Sport England, Mike led the PE, School Sport and Club Links strategy, working across the then Departments for Education and Skills and for Culture, Media and Sport. His leadership saw the percentage of 5 to 16 year olds doing two hours of PE and school sport rise from 25% in 2002 to 80% in 2006, beating the Government’s target by 5 percentage points. He was awarded an OBE in the 2007 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to school sport.