Mike is excited to be part of the BlueLake team where he can apply his education and broad personal experience to helping individuals and families achieve their most important goals in life such as educating their kids, having the kind of retirement they want, and possibly creating a legacy. Mike believes in developing strong relationships with people and enjoys having frequent contact with clients to make sure their plans stay on track.
Mike has a special interest in Environmentally Friendly and Socially Responsible investing and wants people to know that they can align their money with the issues they're passionate about. Mike is frequently interviewed about this topic and speaks to groups that have an affinity for these types of issues.
Mike also believes financial literacy is very important and encourages people to think of him as their "financial phone-a-friend." He volunteers for CARE, a nonprofit that meets with high school classes and other groups to teach them about debt, credit scores, education financing and related topics.
Mike has worked for organizations as diverse as Motorola, where he marketed wireless data and digital cellular networks, and a small energy efficiency nonprofit, where he was Director of Finance. Mike was also General Manager of a family business that he inherited and later sold.
Mike earned his BS in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University and his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He has also earned the Certificate in Financial Planning from DePaul University, which satisfies the education requirement for the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification. Mike holds the FINRA Series 7 (General Securities Representative) and Series 66 (Uniform Combined State Law) securities licenses.
Mike grew up in the Bronx, NY, but has been in the Chicago area for over 30 years. He lives in Park Ridge with his wife Lan, a Children's Librarian at the local public library. They're now empty nesters, their older daughter having graduated college and moved to Baltimore, and their younger daughter off at college in Los Angeles. Mike enjoys biking, gardening and genealogy, and is on the Board of Park Ridge Friends of the Parks. He is also a member of the Park Ridge Sustainability Commission. Mike’s family loves to travel and they focused on exposing the kids to a wide variety of people, places and cuisines. In fact, all four of them have visited all 50 states.
Mike publishes a monthly newsletter that covers Personal Finance, Environmental and Social Investing, and more. Past issues of this newsletter can be found here.