“Learning from and working with Michael has been the highlight of my career… his partnership played a key role in elevating the role of IT in my organization, turning IT into a revenue generator (bringing in over $187m in grants).” — Karl, CIO for a $1b NGO
Experience & Expertise
3,200+
Executive Advisory Interactions
Clients Across
Industries
95+
Average Annual
Client Retention
94%
Years as a Gartner
Senior Executive Partner
11+
Industries: Nonprofits & Associations, Manufacturing, Insurance, Banking, Retail, Professional Services, Healthcare, Higher Education, Public Sector, Engineering & Construction, Utilities, Publishing, Medical, Research, Law, and more.
YOU'RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE IF...
You're a fast-brain/ADHD-style leader with 15 #1 priorities
On the ascent or new in role
Stuck in the weeds despite your title
Your organization is in flux with new leadership or board or new strategy
You're facing a defining transformation in the next 3-12 months
The Diagnostic Suite
These are not maturity assessments or capability scorecards. Each diagnostic uses constraint logic to identify the single factor most limiting your organization's performance - and the specific actions that will produce the greatest impact.
AI Pressure without a clear strategy
Reveals exactly which AI capabilities your organization is ready to scale — and where the real gaps are.
Enterprise transformations that stall before they deliver
Reveals the hidden organizational conditions most likely to derail major initiatives.
IT delivering more than the enterprise can see.
Reveals the single constraint most limiting your IT organization's enterprise impact.
Technology Leverage Diagnostic
Reveals the single operating-model constraint most limiting enterprise acceleration and impact.
IT creating more value than the enterprise recognizes
Cyber risk with no clear executive ownership
Reveals where cyber risk accountability is unclear, undeclared, or dangerously fragmented across your leadership team.
Not sure which diagnostic fits your situation? We identify that together in the first conversation.
How It Works
Step 1: Diagnose
Pinpoint the real constraint
A structured diagnostic - not a survey or maturity scorecard - that identifies the factors most limiting your organization's performance. You receive a detailed report with your archetype, findings, and a sequenced action plan.
Step 2: Align
Turn findings into decisions
We review the findings together and translate them into clear priorities and next moves. This isn't a readout - it's a working session. Most clients arrive expecting a list of recommendations. My clients say this conversation alone changes how they see their organization entirely.
Step 3: Accelerate
Always a move ahead
For leaders who want to keep moving, we continue as a focused strategic advisory partner. Not a retainer for generic advice - a focused relationship built around your specific constraints, your organization's agenda, and the results your leadership team needs to see. For most clients, this is where the real work begins.
Want to go deeper? Learn more about The Advisory Relationship
A Strategic Leadership Partner Who Has Been In Your Shoes
I know how isolating and lonely it can feel at the top. You're expected to have the answers, yet the challenges are often messy, political, and without a clear playbook.
I've sat in that chair. Before founding CxO Amplify, I spent more than a decade as a Senior Executive Partner at Gartner, advising dozens of C-level leaders across industries. And before that, I was a CIO myself - navigating the same pressures, competing priorities, and relentless pace you face every day.
At Gartner I advised dozens of CIOs simultaneously. At CxO Amplify I work with a deliberately small number of clients — because the depth of the relationship is the point.
What I bring is not theory. It's hard-won perspective from both sides of the table. I help leaders cut through complexity, frame choices in business terms, and move conversations to a more strategic level. My role isn't to hand you generic advice — it's to listen, challenge assumptions, and provide clarity so you can lead with confidence.
Being a CIO is frequently a high-pressure job with constant hard decisions to be made. Having an independent partner who can listen and offer advice to navigate corporate politics can be extremely helpful. Michael was my port of calm for five years. I consider him a partner and a friend.
Joyce, CIO, Investment Management Company
Ready to Find Clarity?
Let's have a conversation about what's possible for you and your organization
703.629.4332
Michael@CxOAmplify.com