Michelle brings standard-setting authority, twelve years as Head of Accounting, External Relations and Alliance Deal Accounting at a CHF 60bn pharmaceutical group, and active life sciences deal advisory practice to every engagement.
Michelle's expertise sits at the intersection of accounting standards, commercial deal structure, and life sciences transaction practice. Her audiences are technical, senior, and commercially accountable.
BD professionals at pharma and biotech groups who structure deals without a full view of the IFRS consequences — milestone recognition, variable consideration, collaborative arrangement classification, and the downstream audit exposure those choices create.
Senior finance leaders who need to understand where IFRS 15, IFRS 3, and IFRS 11 intersect in a single licensing or collaboration transaction — and how to brief their boards, auditors, and external advisers with precision rather than generalisation.
Participants in ACCA, ICAEW, CIMA, and executive education programmes who need IFRS explained by someone who represented industry at the standard-setting table — not someone who read the standard afterwards and translated it into slides.
Every session draws on live deal experience and direct involvement in how these standards were written. Michelle does not read from the standard. She explains why it was written that way and what it means in practice.
The five-step IFRS 15 model applied to milestone payments, royalties, upfront licence fees, and collaborative arrangements — including where judgement collapses into error and what the auditors look for first.
How the accounting treatment of a deal affects its commercial value, negotiation dynamics, and audit trail. Designed for audiences who structure deals before the finance team reviews them.
Why milestone structure is an accounting decision as much as a commercial one — and how teams who understand this negotiate better deals and avoid restatement risk.
How CFOs and senior finance professionals build and maintain credibility when the commercial stakes are highest — structured around real scenarios from life sciences deal practice.
Michelle's consistent feedback across audiences is that she makes technical material legible without simplifying it. The standard does not become easier — the audience's ability to use it becomes measurably sharper.
Participants leave with a working understanding of how milestone structure, upfront payments, and royalty design each carry IFRS consequences — and the questions to ask before a term sheet is finalised.
CFOs and finance directors leave with the vocabulary and framing to present IFRS treatment to boards, audit committees, and external auditors without relying on advisers to translate for them.
Michelle was in the room when IFRS 15 was developed. She can explain not just what the standard says but why specific provisions were written the way they were — which is the only way to apply judgement correctly.
Audiences across professions and seniority levels consistently report that Michelle's sessions make IFRS accessible without reducing it to oversimplification. The complexity is preserved; the confusion is not.
Michelle speaks to professional, corporate, and executive audiences. Fees reflect the depth of subject matter expertise, preparation time, and bespoke content development required for each engagement.
Michelle speaks to pharma, biotech, MedTech, and financial leadership audiences. Please include the event format, audience profile, and proposed date. All enquiries are reviewed personally.