Michael Holland
Writer · Explorer · Photographer
For thirty years, I worked with leaders and institutions trying to understand, shape and respond to a changing world.
That career took me from the Irish Peace Process to the UN General Assembly, from corporate boardrooms to humanitarian relief operations. I advised more than 500 senior leaders, worked across more than 100 countries and held leadership roles spanning global communications, public affairs, humanitarian relief and social impact. I directed award-winning global programs for Honeywell, led Edelman's largest corporate social responsibility practice, supported the United Nations Global Compact during the Paris climate negotiations, and served as Managing Director of Ocean Elders.
Then, in September 2022, I packed my life into two suitcases and left the New Jersey community my sons and I had called home since 2008.
What I thought might last a year became a four-year odyssey.
The Journey
Since then, the journey has taken me through twenty-eight states and eight countries across Latin America and Europe, living for weeks and months at a time in more than forty communities along the way.
The journey has put me in places where history was made and others still living with its consequences, bringing me closer to questions of power and belonging, identity and culture, and the ways history continues to shape the present.
My essays and photography draw on four years of immersive travel across three continents and a thirty-year career spent working with leaders and institutions around the world.
I also speak, teach and advise on the questions that have connected both: how we understand one another, how places and institutions shape us, and what becomes visible when we get closer.
Education & Affiliations
Academic background, fellowships and board affiliations alongside three decades of professional work.