Michael Macfarlane is Principal Partner at Michael Macfarlane Associates, a private office that advises UHNWIs, Single Family Offices and companies on matters of reputation, legacy and philanthropy.
Michael Macfarlane is the Principal Partner of Michael Macfarlane Associates, a Private Office located in London and Hong Kong advising UHNWI families and Single Family Offices in matters of reputation, especially before, during and after periods of challenge and change.
Michael closely advises some of the world’s wealthiest families on how to achieve private, investment commercial and philanthropic outcomes in a world where AI has elevated reputation into a key vector of success.
He works with a closely-held roster of high prestige clients, for whom he often adopts a consigliere role, working as a collaborator and trusted advisor at the heart of their most sensitive and challenging matters.
Most of the UHNWI families and Single Family Office clients that Michael advises have a strong connection to Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong or mainland China; but with private, investment, commercial or philanthropic interests that are international and require a global purview.
Michael has built Michael Macfarlane Associates around the values of trust, intelligence and discretion. The office specialises in the build, management and protection of the reputations of Single Family Offices and UHNWI families both online and in the global media.
Michael also supports UHNWI families to engage in more impactful philanthropy and to build their philanthropic legacy through the turnkey creation and operation of philanthropic projects and Foundations and the synthesis of philanthropy into online and media personas. He is responsible for multiple Foundation across varied focus areas.
Under his leadership Michael seeks to work with clients to balance highly creative and inventive image curation with the need to deploy reputation management as risk management; noting that ‘reputation’ is most often the biggest unmanaged risk facing a UHNWI family or Single Family Office.
Michael has been an expert speaker on this subject at many events and was recently an expert speaker on this subject at the Association of Family Offices in Asia at the Asia Futurists Leadership Festival in Hong Kong.
Before founding Michael Macfarlane Associates, Michael was Global Director of Content, Brand and Communications for a Single Family Office in London that managed multi-billion-dollar associate companies and invested in disruptive ventures worldwide.
Michael also led the launch and expansion of ambitious philanthropic projects around the world, including the creation of a brand new Foundation from a kitchen table idea into a global NGO that has since cured 70,000 people of untreated cataract blindness.
Michael Macfarlane was also formerly the founder of the 2030 Sustainable Development Collective Fund, a UK-registered charitable fund that channeled private wealth into sustainable development projects in the developing world in support of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Michael was also formerly an advisor to a $200m AI Switzerland-based venture fund that invested in the component technologies of AI; and a Board Member at Paris-based Team Vitality, a major esports organisation.
Michael was formerly Managing Partner at a global business communications agency with 600 employees across 14 global offices; where he advised on content marketing solutions for blue chip corporate clients before, during and after major transactions such as IPO.
During this time Michael was a regular expert speaker at stock exchange events in Moscow, Hong Kong and London. Prior to this he was the sole founder of two global communications firms that were subsequently the subjects of buyouts, after initially starting his professional career at global advisory firm Brunswick, based in London.