Founder and Director

Steve Michelson is Founder and Director of Michelson Alexander. He is a highly respected corporate advisor and political and national campaigning strategist.

Steve has a diverse background in the private sector, politics and the law and was a key architect in the fight for marriage equality in Australia.

After growing up in north-east Victoria, Steve studied at the Australian National University in Canberra before moving to Melbourne. Steve has worked for the Victorian Department of Health as a Senior Industrial Relations Consultant and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers as a Senior Lawyer giving him an intimate understanding of employer, employee, private and public-sector issues.

Prior to founding Michelson Alexander, Steve spent six years as a trusted advisor to the Hon. Bill Shorten MP, then Leader of the Opposition. As Director of Caucus and Stakeholder Relations, he provided advice regarding highly complex policy, political and communications issues, often in sensitive media environments, and built networks with business, unions and the community.

Steve thrives in complex stakeholder and issues rich environments and is committed to achieving practical outcomes for clients. Most recently he established the historic National Compact on Permanent Migration and is advising Australians for Mental Health along with a number of government agencies and ASX companies.

Steve holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the Australian National University where he was awarded a full CAS Hawker Scholarship and a Master of Laws at Melbourne Law School where he was awarded the Frank Pinkerton Scholarship. He is currently on the committee of Wallara Disability Australia and Bayside Community Health Services and is a member and avid supporter of the Geelong Football Club.

Senior Associate

Jackson joined Michelson Alexander as Senior Associate after an accomplished media career. He was appointed one of the youngest ever deputy editors of a national newsroom. As a finance journalist he covered five federal budgets and proudly helped educate the public on financial literacy in superannuation and banking.

In addition to journalism, Jackson has experience in marketing and investor relations with multi-billion dollar corporates in the industry superannuation sector.

Jackson grew up in a small regional town and was the first of his immediate family to attend university. A near-perfect Year 12 score gave him entry to Monash University’s Law School.

Before starting his degree Jackson chose to spend a gap year working at a country law firm specialising in worker’s compensation. He had regular contact with locals injured in car crashes, workplace accidents and through medical malpractice who were often in great pain. He is committed to helping working people and giving back to the community.

Jackson holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Monash University, Graduate Certificate of Law from the Australian National University (ANU), Certificate of Governance Practice from the Governance Institute, and is completing a Master of Public Policy at Monash University.

His backgrounds in media, law and finance make him a highly proficient writer and skilled communicator. He specialises in helping clients hone messaging and influence key audiences.

Associate

As an Associate, Ali uses her depth of experience as a talented advocate, communicator and case manager to solve complex problems for clients.

Prior to emigrating to Australia, Ali was a practicing solicitor and courtroom advocate in England and Wales. She worked for both the Crown Prosecutor and several leading defence firms. She successfully represented clients before the UK Magistrates Court, Crown Court and even the High Court, in high profile cases involving immigration, mental health and serious white collar crime.

Ali’s skills as a communicator, researcher and strategist come from her years in corporate and criminal law, where she would carefully interview clients, forensically cross-examine witnesses, lead legal arguments and spend hours trawling through complex documents to build solid cases. Whether addressing judges, juries, corporate decision makers or the general public, she is an expert at persuasion communications.

A passion for serving clients beyond the confines of the courtroom drew her to the community sector. She has held senior roles in charitable organisations where she gained valuable experience in management, fundraising, marketing and stakeholder engagement.

Ali’s deep understanding of the intersection between the law and the private sector is extremely valuable to corporate clients. Her statutory and regulatory experience also allows Ali to give strategic advice on grant applications, risk management and highly technical document drafting.

Associate

Andrew Stewart is an Associate at Michelson Alexander with a diverse background in technology and communications.

He is the firm’s principal data analyst, ensuring Michelson Alexander stays at the cutting edge of the data-driven strategies that are transforming organisational culture. He helps large corporates and not-for-profits identify, extract and manage multiple sources of data, build the capability for advanced-analytics models to predict and optimise outcomes, and helps them transform their organisations so that data and models inspire better decision making.

Andrew is a graduate of Monash University where he studied Aerospace Engineering (Hons), Australian Politics and Japanese Translation. Owing to this distinctive academic background, Andrew is able to provide a wide range of technical research and support to the firm’s clients – and to communicate insights simply and effectively.

Andrew’s former role in data analysis and systems automation for a large telecommunications company affords him a unique and valuable data-based perspective to complex problem solving.

His passion is using technology to solve complex social problems that improve the lives of Australians. In his spare time he enjoys volunteering on tech-based projects for local community groups.

Practice Manager

Hayden is the Practice Manager of Michelson Alexander. His commercial and legal background helps achieve maximum productivity across task allocation, time management, costs and processes.

He studied Law and Japanese at the Australian National University in Canberra and has spent most of his career in the private sector.

Before starting at Michelson Alexander, Hayden worked as Global Training Manager at a luxury consumer product brand where he oversaw the sales and training programs for the company across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States.

He helps the firm deliver outstanding client service through seamless billing and invoicing and by ensuring all projects and tasks are completed on time and budget. He manages the business, inducts and supervises staff and oversees the firm’s people and culture.

Hayden is passionate about ensuring that the firm’s core mission, values, beliefs and behaviours best reflect the company culture and serve client best interests.

Graphic Designer

Nick brings 24 years of international experience in the advertising industry to his design and content creation work for Michelson Alexander.

He started his graphics career in 1995 where he was the first employee of one of the most revolutionary design companies in South Africa’s history – Orange Juice Design.

Nick then joined the newly formed interactive team at OgilvyInteractive South Africa. Starting off as a senior designer he soon became the Group Head and was promoted to Creative Director managing a small studio of 10 designers and developers.

Moving to Sydney in 2005 he joined OgilvyInteractive Sydney as Creative Director for three years, creating campaigns for large companies and multinationals including Nestle, Coca-Cola, IBM, Nokia, Lenovo, Purina, America Express, Audi, Volkswagen, and Qantas.