A little about Mike:
In 2022, Mike became North America Policy Director for Airbnb, the publicly-traded travel and hospitality technology company whose community includes millions of guests and hosts around the world. He oversees a team of dozens of skilled public policy professionals representing the interests of Airbnb and our thousands of guests and hosts in thousands of markets across the United States and Canada, spearheading additionally the company’s work on issues from economic empowerment, housing affordability, and trust and safety.
From 2017 - 2022 he was Partner, VP and General Counsel of WillowTree, the country’s largest independent digital design agency, where he sat on the firm’s executive committee. Among other responsibilities, he was lead negotiator for many multi-million dollar agreements with Fortune 500 companies, founded and led the Social Impact practice, and led the development of a new 85,000 square foot headquarters involving state and local support. Previously, he served as Founder and Managing Principal of Madison Law & Strategy Group, PLLC, from 2010 - 2016, where he practiced corporate and regulatory law, where his clients included the southeast’s largest hedge fund, a major alternative energy company, and dozens of early-stage technology companies. Earlier in his career he was counsel to Governor Mark Warner of Virginia, where his work included complex matters including death penalty appeals and National Guard and homeland security, and an attorney at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr in Washington, D.C., where he was a member of the firm’s Public Policy and Strategy and Government Litigation groups.
From 2016–2018, he served as the mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, a AAA-bond-rated city that was ranked the #4 city for entrepreneurs by Entrepreneur magazine during his tenure and where his accomplishments included expanding the city’s technology tax credit, spearheading initiatives to support political refugees and immigrants, protecting historic neighborhoods from gentrification, and expanding voter registration.. He served during the violent Unite the Right rally of 2017, after which The Washington Post wrote that he was “one of [Donald] Trump’s strongest critics.” Afterward, he founded and chaired Communities Overcoming Extremism: the After Charlottesville Project, a bipartisan coalition including the Anti-Defamation League, the Ford Foundation, the Charles Koch Institute, the Fetzer Institute, and New America. National Public Radio featured Mike’s work “sharing painful lessons from the fight against hate.”
He is the author of three books: Cry Havoc: Charlottesville and American Democracy under Siege (PublicAffairs, 2020), Becoming Madison: The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father (PublicAffairs, 2015), and Demagogue: the Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). He has written for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Time, and has been interviewed on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, The Rachel Maddow Show, AC360, and NPR. He teaches at the University of Virginia’s Batten School for Leadership and Public Policy and in the fall of 2022 will be the Inaugural Democracy Fellow in the Program on Democratic Resilience and Development Fellow at Reichman University in Israel.
He is a recipient of the Levenson Family Defender of Democracy Award from the Anti-Defamation League, the Courage in Political Leadership Award from the American Society for Yad Vashem, and the Rob DeBree & David O’Malley Award for Community Response to Hatred from the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Forward Magazine has named him one of 50 most influential Jewish leaders in America. He is an Aspen Institute Rodel Fellow. He has been profiled by the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, CNN, and the Guardian.
He holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in political science from U.C., Berkeley, and graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, where he was a work-study student. He was raised in Arlington, Virginia, where he attended public school.
He lives with his wife and their twin boys and their dog in Northern Virginia. In his spare time, he enjoys running, reading, cooking, painting, and outdoor activities with his boys.
In the Media
NPR covered Mike’s work to “share painful lessons from the fight against hate” in Charlottesville.
The piece covered Communities Overcoming Extremism on the second anniversary of the Unite the Right rally.
Mike appeared at the Aspen Ideas Festival for a conversation about the legacy of Charlottesville.
He shared his experiences and lessons for the fight against extremism.
Benjamin Wallace-Wells of The New Yorker interviewed Mike for a cover-page article about Charlottesville.
Mike explained nuances of Charlottesville, including about the First Amendment and decision-making in the city.
After the Unite the Right rally, The New York Times asked Mike to write an essay about Charlottesville’s legacy.
He argued that as a tragic and violent stress-test of our system, Charlottesville could still lead to greater resilience for our democracy.
Mike was interviewed on Meet the Press about Charlottesville.
He said the event would be a “turning point” against the rise of white nationalism and extremism in America.
As mayor, Mike presented a keynote speech to the Tom-Tom Founders Festival, focusing on Charlottesville’s successful economy.
He spoke about building creative economies and why cities need openness, creativity, and diversity in an age of disruptive trends.
Mike’s Story
Public Service
Mike speaking during a national press conference on August 12, 2017.
Mike was elected to the Charlottesville City Council in November 2015. In January 2016, Mike was unanimously selected by his peers to serve as Mayor. He announced that his major priorities would be innovation, infrastructure, governance, and reconciliation. He served as Mayor from 2016 to 2018, during which he worked to drive major accomplishments including:
Doubling the City's contribution to the Affordable Housing Fund
Renewing and expanding the technology tax credit from five to seven years
Founding the Mayor's Advisory Council on Innovation and Technology
Passing the $35 million West Main Streetscape Plan
Becoming the first Virginia city to require city agencies to register voters online
Expanding support for immigrants and refugees, including through a $10,000 contribution to the Legal Aid Justice Center for legal services for these populations.
Implementing a regionalism initiative with Albemarle County including five memorandums of understanding on key policy areas
Implementing an Open Data Policy
Cutting fees for over 400 small businesses grossing between $50,000 and $100,000 a year
Allocating $80,000 to the rehabilitation of the historic African-American Daughters of Zion cemetery
Passing anti-gentrification zoning protections for the Rose Hill and Woolen Mills Neighborhoods
Implementing a wide range of recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials, and Public Spaces, including dedicating $900,000 to the African-American Heritage Center and re-instituting the Charlottesville Dialogue on Race
Collaborating with Georgetown University to successfully sue paramilitary organizations and individuals in the wake of the August 12 "Unite the Right" rally to prevent them from invading Charlottesville again
Overhauling the City's event permitting regulations to enhance public safety
During Mike's tenure, Charlottesville was named the #4 city in America for entrepreneurs by Entrepreneur magazine, the #5 Happiest, Healthiest City by the Today show, and the #5 best place to live by Livability.com.
After his tenure as Mayor, Mike served another two years on City Council, where he was a member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, the City’s Audit Committee, and the LEAP Governance Board.
Mike was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 2009, raising nearly $500,000 and winning the endorsements of five newspapers.
In 2009, Governor Tim Kaine appointed him to a four-year term as a citizen member of Virginia's Board of Medicine, which regulates and disciplines over 50,000 doctors. In 2016, Governor Terry McAuliffe appointed him to the Council on Virginia's Future.
Mike served as the chair of the Emergency Food Network in Charlottesville from 2014 to 2017.
Law
Mike speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, with Jamelle Bouie and Melody Barnes, 2018.
Mike is an experienced practicing attorney with experience in public sector, Constitutional, and pro bono law.
He currently serves as VP and General Counsel of the country’s largest independent digital design agency, where he serves on the firm’s executive team. He has been with the firm since 2017.
He began his legal career as a law clerk at the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, where he worked on predatory lending cases. From 2004 to 2007, he was an associate in the Government Litigation, Public Policy and Strategy, and Corporate Groups at WilmerHale in Washington, D.C.
He served as counsel in the Richmond office of Governor Mark Warner of Virginia from 2005 to 2006, where he advised the Governor on a wide range of criminal, regulatory, and strategic matters, including a review of DNA evidence in criminal cases, and death penalty appeals.
In 2010, he launched Madison Law & Strategy Group, PLLC, where he practiced corporate and regulatory law through 2016. His clients included alternative investors, early-stage technology companies, government contractors, Fortune 500 companies, and artists and entertainment productions.
For many years, Mike was a leading voting rights attorney in Virginia. He helped to run eight Democratic voter protection programs, including directing the 2004 statewide effort for the Democratic National Committee. He traveled to wartime Afghanistan in 2010 to monitor the country's parliamentary elections on behalf of the U.S. government.
He served as Chair of the Pro Bono Commission of the Young Lawyers Conference of the Virginia State Bar and was later appointed to the Virginia State Bar's Access to Legal Services Commission.
He is a current member of the Association of Corporate Counsel. He is a member of both the Virginia and Washington, D.C. Bars.
National Security
Mike speaking at the Center for American Progress, 2009
After the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, Mike founded and chaired Communities Overcoming Extremism: the After Charlottesville Project, a bipartisan capacity-building coalition dedicated to convening leaders and generating best practices and alliances against extremism. The project held two national summits and released a final report containing dozens of case studies and best practices.
In 2020, Mike will be traveling around the country to engage leaders, share the lessons of Communities Overcoming Extremism, and gather new case studies.
This work extended Mike’s long work in national security. In 2005, Mike became a founding member and Principal of the Truman National Security Project and a founding contributor to the Democracy Arsenal blog. He authored an influential article on American exceptionalism in the inaugural issue of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, after which he was hired as staff national security director for the 2008 John Edwards for President campaign, where he served as a surrogate at campaign events in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and directed the campaign's Iowa City office.
He served as Senior Policy Advisor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, where he was executive director of the Homeland Security Presidential Transition Initiative, which successfully advocated for reforms including the merger of the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council in the new Obama administration.
He was a member of the State Department Transition team for President-elect Barack Obama.
He has spoken on national security and foreign policy to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Center for American Progress, the Doha Forum in Qatar, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Berlin, and the German Marshall Foundation in Tremezzo, Italy.
He has been a member of the Boards of Directors of the Truman National Security Project Educational Institute and the Center for National Policy in Washington, D.C., and he chaired the E3 Initiative at the Progressive Policy Institute, which advocated for the nexus between clean energy and national security.
He served as Chair of Governor Terry McAuliffe’s Transition Council on Homeland Security and as Vice-Chair of Arlington County's Emergency Preparedness Advisory Commission.
Personal
Photo credit: Jen Fariello
Mike’s grandfather Herb was a jeep mechanic with the U.S. Army on the European front during World War II. His grandmother Esther was a secretary at the New School in New York City, where she worked with the scholar Hannah Arendt, who wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism. Mike’s parents were professional journalists.
Mike was raised in Arlington, Virginia, where he attended majority-minority public schools and began working in 9th grade. He attended Princeton University on a scholarship, where he was a work-study student and graduated magna cum laude. He then earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.
He and his wife Emily, a national security expert whose areas of expertise include Iran, the Middle East, mass communications, and propaganda, are the proud parents of twin boys.