User:Marpleleaf

Michael Taylor is an entrepreneur and well known figure in the North West business community. He blogs at The Marple Leaf and tweets as @marpleleaf.

He is on the board of several organisations and companies and works as an events host and consultant. His first novel, 40 by 40 was published in 2015.

He started out writing about sport, music, fashion, design and culture in Australia in 1989 after graduating from the University of Manchester. On returning to the UK, he became a business journalist, becoming an editor by the time he was 30 and winning Northern Business Journalist of the Year four times, Private Equity journalist of the year twice and several other awards.

In his time as the editorial director of Insider Media, publishers of leading business magazines, he built a respected reputation as an investigative journalist, reporting on company collapses and wide scale frauds.

In 2013 he started DISCUSS, a new debate series for the intellectually curious. He is a director of Liberty Pensions and is on the board of the University of Manchester Alumni.

His clients include Seneca, INTUIT, Deloitte, the ICAEW, Daisy and the Prince’s Trust and has fronted major corporate internal events for large corporates, charities and public sector campaigns.

In 2012 he co-authored and edited Northern Monkeys a history of northern working class fashion, where he interviewed several entrepreneurs in the fashion business.

He was also Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Hazel Grove in the 2015 General Election, increasing the vote by 50%.

He lives in Cheshire with his wife and five sons.