- See also Mike Southon .
Mike Southon is a British entrepreneur and author.
Mike Southon was educated at Papplewick School, Ascot (where he was a contemporary of Richard Curtis) and Wellington College, Crowthorne (where in 1967 he met Chris West, who was to become his co-author). He subsequently attended Imperial College London to read mechanical engineering, but left after a year. He worked at Tate & Lyle Research in Reading for a while and then went on to the University of Bradford to read chemical engineering and economics.
Southon has started a number of companies, the most successful of which was The Instruction Set, a Unix training company that was bought out in 1989 by Hoskyns (now Cap Gemini Ernst & Young). He was involved with 17 startup companies during the 1990s, including Riversoft and Micromuse.
More recently, he has written books aimed at entrepreneurs with Chris West, the first of which was
The Beermat Entrepreneur. He gives presentations on entrepreneurship and sales and has written columns for the Daily Telegraph, featuring interviews with well-known business people, and now has a weekly column every Saturday in the Financial Times.
Southon is a Visiting Fellow in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at London South Bank University and a Fellow of the Professional Speakers Association.
Mike's alter ego is
Mike Fab-Gere, a 60s and 70s rock star. He was also previously the front man and singer for the Oxcentrics jazz band in Oxford, in which Chris West also played on drums.