Michael Chalhoub was born and raised in Koweit, before moving with the first Gulf War in 1990 to Paris and Dubai (where he lived for 11 years). In 2004, Michael received a Masters Degree in Corporate Finance from the University of Dauphine, and went on to work at Societe Generale for 18 months. In 2006, Michael graduated from Paris-Dauphine University with an Executive MBA in International Business, and went on to work in sport event organization, marketing and logistics with IMG in Paris.

Michael joined the Bain & Company consultancy group in 2007, where he was then transferred to their New York offices in June of the same year. In 2008, Michael specialized in media & telecommunication consultancy, and was transferred again to one of the subsidiaries of Bain & Company, called the Southbridge Group in Santiago, Chile.

In January 2010, Michael moved back to the UAE, where he founded his own company, Gulf Sports Media FZ-LLC, with the financial backing of the Chalhoub Group, the Bukhatir Group and Mr. Arif Naqvi of Abraaj Capital.

Gulf Sports Media’s primary objective was to become the leading sports information provider in the UAE and the Gulf region, thanks to the success of its daily newspaper Sport360, its website sport360.com, its social media network and its multiple Smartphone Applications.

The newspaper has been audited at an average daily qualified circulation of 34,709 copies daily by BPA Worldwide, with an average readership of 3.2 readers per copy.  The Sport360 website, that has already been relaunched in August 2011 into a more community-based website looking to mainly cater to the MENA region and help its users engage in what is possibly the most debated topic in the GCC, is also hugely successful with 140,000 unique users on a monthly basis.