Michael is a highly successful serial technology entrepreneur and pioneer with over 30 years’ experience in the telecoms & technology sector; an author, and philanthropist.
As Chief Executive, Michael Tobin OBE led TelecityGroup plc, a leading FTSE250 Technology company from 2002 to 2014.
He joined Redbus in 2002 delisting it from the main market to AIM, and then took it private, winning the London Business Awards “Business Turnaround of the Year” award in 2005. After engineering the merger with Telecity, and the acquisition of Globix he successfully re-listed TelecityGroup in October 2007.
Subsequently he grew the business organically, transforming the company from £6m market cap in 2002 to being a top performer in the FTSE250 worth over £2.5Bn, being recognized as Britain’s Most Admired Tech Company in 2012.
Prior to joining TelecityGroup, Michael headed up Fujitsu’s E-Commerce operations in Frankfurt, Germany. Before that, he ran ICL’s Danish outsourcing subsidiary out of Copenhagen Denmark. He also held several senior positions based in Paris for over 11 years including Business Development Director at International Computer Group coordinating global distribution of IT infrastructure.
As a Non-Exec Director, Michael was instrumental in transforming PACNET in Hong Kong from a Sub Sea Cable operator to a successful Datacenter operator culminating in its sale in 2015 to Telstra for $800m. In 2017 he was the key driver of the sale of Itconic in Spain to Equinix generating over 7x money for Carlyle in just 19 months, and as a NED oversaw the sale of Datapipe in New York to Rackspace and Basefarm in Norway to Orange on behalf of Abry Partners.
Beyond his incredible work in business and technology – which has been recognised by a multitude of awards – Michael is also known for his charitable work, focused primarily on the education, welfare & empowerment of young people and children around the world. In 2016, he slept in the streets to raise money and awareness for Action for Children, completed his Duke of Edinburgh Diamond Award, and raised over £100k running 40 Marathons in 40 consecutive days for the 40th anniversary of the Prince’s Trust. In 2020 Tobin trekked to the South Pole raising over £100k for the Brain Tumour Charity.
Michael joined ScaleUp Group when it was founded by John O’Connell in 2015 sharing his vast experience to nurture and grow the Global Champions of the future.