Michael Thompson is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He promotes the team approach to management, incorporating all that is necessary to achieve "Best Value", through Partnering, Value Management, Risk Management and Performance Management.

Michael is Executive Director of the West Midlands Centre for Constructing Excellence (WMCCE) from which he will step down at the end of April 2010, having been in the post since October 2006. This centre drives best practice in construction in the West Midlands of England and is managed through the University of Wolverhampton.

He is also West Midlands Chairman of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

He still maintains an interest in the Team Focus Group, but his activities are limited by his involvement in WMCCE

He chaired the CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association) steering group in the United Kingdom researching "Integrated Management" and has been a member of CIRIA steering group researching better ways of managing risk.

Michael has in excess of 43 years of experience in industry, gained in the United Kingdom, in the Near East, in the Middle East and in the Far East, and in North America. 

He has been involved in the design and project management of several large international schemes prior to taking on the project management of the first partnering scheme in the water industry in the United Kingdom. Following this very successful scheme, he focused specifically on providing services to improve the way in which organizations go about developing and achieving their finished products. He is a strong supporter of the Lean approach, not only at the implementation stage of projects but in their development also.

He has facilitated a large number of studies and workshops, ranging from team building and partnering through to value management, risk management and performance management, at all levels from Board to Program to Project.