Gerald Michaluk

Gerald Michaluk was the Conservative Party candidate for the Ochil & South Perthshire seat at the 2010 General Election. Michaluk is the CEO of Marketing Management Systems International, a marketing consultancy with satellite offices in Chicago, Houston and Silicon Valley. He is also a "high profile member" of the Chartered Institute of Marketing .

Through his company MMSI, Michaluk has had business interests in transport, IT, The Defence Industry most notably in Iraq where his firm sold their military intelligence analysis business at the dawn of the 2003 invasion for around £13m, most recently his business interests have been in the alcohol industry with the purchase of the Arran Brewery.

According to his biography on the "Scotland Votes" website:

Gerald attended Lendrick Muir School in Rumbling Bridge, Kinross. He went on to read Chemistry and then Management at Herriot Watt University. He took up an academic career culminating in a post at Strathclyde University and elected membership of the University's senate before founding his own business and becoming a marketing consultant. He is a member of the Market Research Society, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a Chartered Marketer.

Gerald has business interests in Perth and Glasgow where his head office is located in the city's central financial district. Gerald has over 25 years service with the British Red Cross as a volunteer and is a Civilian Gliding Instructor with the Air Cadets the Royal Air Forces youth movement.

Views

Nuclear Power

In an article co-authored with Faisal Choudry in the Glasgow Herald Michaluk argued:

The argument for nuclear generation is that it produces no greenhouse gases, is efficient and offers high capacity. Against this is set the waste, the decommissioning problem, and public opinion. Wind farms, hydro-electric schemes and solar power have their advantages and disadvantages. They are renewable and non-polluting, but they offer little capacity and long time scales for return on investment. These renewable sources also have opponents - after all who wants to look out onto a sea of windmills and to generate the nuclear equivalent there would have to be seas of windmills. Finally, our traditional fuels - oil, gas and coal - all generate greenhouse gases. There is no easy answer. However, all energy experts agree that a diversity of power sources is desirable. The door has been opened for nuclear energy to be considered once again as one of these sources

US Treatment of Prisoners

In 2002 Michaluk wrote to The Herald regarding U.S. treatment of al Qaeda prisoners, he concluded:

GPW Article 3 requires that insurgent captives be humanely treated and forbids violence to life and person; in particular murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture. It is quite clear the US Army is not breaching the rules in this regard; however, the article further forbids committing of outrages upon personal dignity, taking hostages, passing of sentences, and execution without prior judgment by a regularly constituted court. While some may argue that photographs depict a violation of personal dignity, all in all the US is not even close to breaching Article 3; none the less, the international community is watching and the US Army by not paying attention to its own policy documents has as they noted provided grist for al Qaeda's propaganda mill.

Gordon Brown

Michaluk wrote to the Express newspaper in 2009:

Another example of the incompetence of Gordon Brown was exposed earlier this week when he was forced into a humiliating U-turn on the training of the Territorial Army, the most committed and professional back-up force in the western world, who could, at any time, be asked to fight for our country. Mr Brown has been forced into back tracking over planned cuts to the TA training and has a very dismissive attitude. Brown's attitude is similar to what we have seen when it comes to equipping our troops on the front line, housing for our Forces' families and the treatment of our veterans. It is completely unacceptable.

Business Interests

Transport

In 1996 he was listed as a spokesman for Scottish Track Renewal Company.

IT Industry

Marketing Management Systems International won a £500,000 contract to conduct customer research for Tandem Computers in 1998.

Oil Industry

According to a 2001 report in the Aberdeen Press & Journal:

The UK's eighth-largest marketing firm yesterday said it was looking for offices in Aberdeen as part of plans to expand its energy-consultancy operations, possibly creating up to 150 jobs. Glasgow-based Marketing Management Services International (MMSI), which employs about 170, is in talks with Aberdeen's council to find a city-centre location and hopes to move into a site next year. Managing director Gerald Michaluk correct said MMSI, which advises companies on business strategy, wanted to recruit former oil executives to become consultants as well as recent graduates for junior consultant posts and students for part-time work.

Defence

Iraq

According to a 2002 report in The Herald:

US plans to invade Iraq have proved a godsend for Managing Marketing Services (MMS), a Glasgow-based marketing consultancy which is helping military intelligence services analyse battlefield information. The company was forced to shelve a planned flotation last year and suffered a hammer blow when Compaq, its largest client, was taken over by Hewlett Packard. Military work is booming now and MMS is considering two bid approaches from US companies keen to gain control of its sophisticated analysis software. Sums of up to £6m are being talked about as defence forces around the world knock on the company's door, seeking help to analyse satellite data, avoid naval minefields and interpret the sounds picked up by clandestine listening devices.

"If we are bought, it will be in the next two to three months," said Gerald Michaluk, MMS managing director, who still harbours hopes of being able to grow the business independently.

MMS and its offshore subsidiaries generate global revenues of nearly (pounds) 4m and employ 24 people around the world, from Scotland to the US, Pakistan and rebel-controlled areas of northern Iraq. These are backed up by a team of 150 part-time researchers.

An update in February 2003 read:

Gerald Michaluk, managing director of Marketing Management Services International (MMSI), is living proof that there is no better time to sell a military intelligence business than during the build-up to a global conflict. The board of MMSI, a Glasgow-based predictive marketing specialist, last week approved what had only days earlier been a hostile takeover attempt by an undisclosed US defence giant. As the winds of war with Iraq pick up in intensity, Michaluk was yesterday pondering the possibility of sitting on a beach - preferably one far from the Persian Gulf - with $ 7m (£4.3m) in his bank account. With the countdown for a military attack seemingly now under way, the attractiveness of MMSI's defence-intelligence software system - both as a provider and as a takeover target - has never been greater.

Designing Body Armour

While installing one of his company's systems in Pakistan, Michaluk hatched an idea for a new type of body armour. He described how he came up with the idea:

"I was having a conversation with someone from a company that's involved with Pentagon security, and we were talking about guns, as one does with them, “said Michaluk. "It emerged that certain new weapons, like the high-powered five-seven pistol - which thanks to George W Bush is now available in US gun stores - will pierce all available body armour. "These weapons are really only intended for special operations groups like the SAS or US police Swat teams or the Spanish anti-terrorist squads, but if they get into the hands of the bad guys - and it's only a matter of time - this current generation of armour is useless."

Michaluk was later at the NASA centre in Houston, Texas, and a chance conversation with an engineer led to the eureka moment. He said:

"We were talking about how Nasa gets around the problem of miniature meteorites going through the outer armour of space craft, like the shuttle or satellites. It then hit me that the same technology could be used to protect against the kind of weapons I was hearing about in Pakistan. So I got in touch with Glasgow University to see if they were interested."

Michaluk contacted the department of mechanical engineering's ballistics and impact team - former soldiers turned-researchers and lecturers Dr Ron Thomson and Alan Birbeck - who applied the Nasa equation to the five seven and believes it will work.

Sale of Military Intelligence Analysis Business

In February 2003, Michaluk sold the military intelligence analysis part of his Management Marketing Services business for up to £13m.

Purchase of Radiation Suits

According to a report in the Herald:

Gerald Michaluk, a security consultant, said he had purchased 250 radiation suits, identical to those issued to British troops and which can keep the effects of poison gases and nerve agents at bay for 28 days, for just £60. Radiation monitors and body armour are also available online. Mr Michaluk said: "You can buy these suits in bulk for less than £1 each, no questions asked. These are restricted items but the government's surplus departments are disposing of things that should really be destroyed"..

Alcohol

In June 2008 Michaud’s firm MMSI purchased Arran Brewery, two months later the firm purchased Liverpool based brewer Cains Beer Company.

Affiliations

Conservative Party | Marketing Management Systems International | Chartered Institute of Marketing | Scottish Track Renewal Company