Michael Stone

Michael a former NFL athlete, serial entrepreneur and long-time advocate for professional athlete transition from sports to business. After 7 years in the NFL, Michael put up the pads & founded a 100% athlete owned membership organization for professional athletes with the goal of leveraging strategic relationships with product and service providers to protect and benefit its members. Over the course of 2 year Michael developed a keen since of athlete engagement as he and his team recruited over 100 professional athlete owners/members from Julius Erving, Ray Lewis to Antwan Randle-el.

As Michael gained a better understanding of the gaps in the professional athlete experience he began to lean towards the creation of educational resources to help professional athletes in transition. Years later he founded the Professional Athlete Franchise Initiative with the goal of introducing professional athletes to the franchise model through a series of educational bootcamps and panel discussions. Over the course of 5 years the program introduced over 250 NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA athletes to the franchise model. Some of the most notable were Angelo Crowell former Buffalo Bill and current owner of over 40 Jersey Mike restaurants and Drew Brees former New Orleans Saint and Jimmy Johns franchisee. In 2012 Michael partnered with NFL Player Engagement and Ross Business School as the key consultant in the first NFL Franchise Bootcamp.

Outside of direct professional athlete centered ventures Michael also founded Builder Bunch a LEGO®-based After School and Summer Camp company, headquartered in Atlanta www.thebuilderbunch.com and is the co-founder of a newly launched youth sports franchise called the National Academy of Athletics headquartered in Santa Rosa, California. nationalacademyofathletics.com

Michael graduated from University of Memphis with a 3.72 GPA and participated in the NFL Exec Education Programs at Stanford, Wharton, and Kellogg Business Schools. He currently resides in Atlanta, GA where he raised his 4 sons. His oldest son, Mekhi Stone currently a sophomore on the UCONN track team. Isaiah Stone is a freshman walk-on on the LSU football team. Noah and Eli Stone both currently in middle school.