Michael Hazel joins Annexio Board to support ambitious growth plans

Lottery betting operator Annexio has appointed Michael Hazel as a non-executive Board member.

With 25 years’ experience in the technology and online industries, Michael has worked with some of the biggest names in the business at a global level and brings valuable international perspective and operational insight to the Annexio Board.

A qualified Chartered Accountant, Michael began his career with Deloitte in Dublin, Ireland, before moving to Melbourne in Australia to work for Motorola and BHP.  He was then recruited by software giant Microsoft, undertaking a number of international assignments prior to moving to Microsoft’s international headquarters in London where he was appointed Finance Director of its online business MSN. Responsible for the region covering China, India, South Africa, Latin America and Canada, he set up new market strategies and managed a number of joint ventures in these countries.

In early 2006 Michael joined PokerStars, part of the Rational Group, as Director of Financial Planning and Analysis. He spent 10 years there during the company’s expansion into many new markets across Europe, Latin America and Asia, seeing its global market share increase from 16% to over 70%. Appointed Chief Financial Officer in 2012 he  was the project lead for the sale of the company in August 2014 to AMAYA for $4.9 billion. He was then promoted to Chief Executive Officer of Rational Group and assisted in the transition to the new ownership.