Professional Bio
Joseph V. Micallef is a keynote speaker, business executive, best-selling author, syndicated columnist, historian, war correspondent, and commentator on business leadership, future trends and military and international affairs.
He is a member of the National Speakers Association and he has been a keynote speaker for a number of business and professional organizations on a range of business management and strategic issues with particular emphasis on such topics as managing under uncertainty, strategic foresight and future trends, assessing political risk, the management of closely held family companies and entrepreneurship.
In addition, he has spoken at a variety of professional venues, including the Institute of Strategic Studies (London), the NATO Defense College (Rome), the World Future Society and a large number of universities, military and other organizations on a variety of topics dealing with military and current affairs. His particular areas of expertise are on international security and the military history and international politics of the 19th and 20th centuries. He has also appeared as a commentator in a variety of broadcast settings including Fox News Radio and Fox News and CNN.
He has written, directed or produced dozens of documentaries on military history and current affairs as well as published a number of books. He is also a prolific columnist. He writes a weekly column on world affairs for the Huffington Post and Military.com. He also writes occasional features on various aspects of the history of food, wine and spirits. Two other weekly columns, Global Pulse (world affairs) and Bottoms Up (wines and spirits), which he also writes, are syndicated to 1,800 international media outlets. In addition, he is the Editor at Large: Scotch Whisky for the Whisky Wash, a whisky lifestyle website.
From 1989 through 1999 he was the President of the Allegro Media Group (AMG) and from 1999 through 2014 he was its Chairman and CEO. While at AMG he produced, directed or wrote dozens of documentary programs on military history and world politics.
Joseph Micallef has over 25 years of experience in the media industry as a builder, manager and entrepreneur and has a reputation as a long range strategic thinker about media industry trends, the impact of new digital technology on the media business and new product development. He has also served as a director of a number of companies.
He was also a Visiting Professor at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC. From 1978 to 1980 he covered Mediterranean and Middle East Politics, including the civil war in Chad, for a number of Italian newspapers.
Mr. Micallef holds a Graduate Degree (M.Sc.) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was a Fulbright Fellow at the Italian Institute of International Affairs. He also holds a Certificate, Director’s Course from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
He was a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) for 10 years and served as Chapter Chair and Education Chair. He was recognized by YPO at their Global Leadership Conference for having the “Best Educational Event” in 2004-2005. In 2014 he was a finalist (Pacific Northwest) for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year.
Among his most recent books are Understanding World War One: A Concise History (2014), Islamic State: Its History, Ideology and Challenge (2015), Scotch Whisky: Its History, Production and Appreciation (2015). A new book, Leadership in Uncertain Times: The Role of Strategic Foresight is forthcoming. Two new books, The Whisky Isles and What Would Winston Have Said: Churchill for the 21st Century are currently under development.
He is fluent in Italian, Spanish and English, has a working knowledge of French and Maltese and some proficiency in Arabic and German.