Listen to the Podcast
Skip to main content

Personal timeline  | Age 1 – 18 years old

Dec 22nd, 1947, born in St Column Cornwall in a house called Melness.

In 1951 moved to a new House in
St. Column Cornwall.

In 1955 Attended a boarding school in Barnstaple North Devon called St. Michaels.

In 1961 Attended Sherborne School in Dorset England.

Left school; in 1966 and moved to
7 Albert Place in London.

1947-1967 timeline images

Personal timeline  | Age 19 – 25 years old

Chosen from  800 applicants to be part of a select group of employees to  study advanced computer applications at the International Publishing Company, the largest publisher in the world at that time.

Key part of a team that developed a real-time computer network known as SCAN (Stock market Computer Answering Network), the very first software as a service platform. This service offered financial analysis for banks, stockbrokers, and insurance companies.

1967-1972 timeline images

Personal timeline  | Age 25 – 27 years old

Left UK to emigrate to the USA in 1972.

Founded a computer consulting firm in 1973 to offer turnkey computer systems for first-time business computer buyers.

In 1974, founded a financial turnaround company and over the next 17 years completed 34 different turnarounds.

1972-1974 timeline images

Personal timeline  | Age 38 – 47 years old

Acquired equity in various troubled aerospace and high-tech manufacturing companies in exchange for providing turnaround services.

  • Tyee Aircraft
    Everett, Washington
  • Technical Airborne Components
    Herstal, Belgium
  • Fife Fabrications Glenrothes, Scotland
  • Dimensional Fabricators
    Tigard, Washington
1985-1994 timeline images

Personal timeline  | Age 47 – 49 years old

Partnered with Quadrant PLC (a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange) to acquire Zirca-Tech, a small Boeing-certified aerospace component manufacturer based in Gresham, Oregon.

In 1996, I bought out Quadrant PLC and the company was renamed to QPM Aerospace, during this same period I acquired complete ownership of Dimensional Fabricator, a sheet metal manufacturer located in Tigard, Oregon.

1994-1996 timeline images

Personal timeline  | Age 50 – 53 years old

In 1998 founded a new green field company specializing in the manufacturing of swaged tubes for the aerospace industry in Woodinville, Washington.

In 1999, Dimensional Fabricators relocated from an 8,000 sq ft facility in Tigard to a 40,000 sq ft facility in Auburn. The company also obtained a D1-9000 certification, qualifying the company to produce aerospace components for Boeing and other aerospace companies.

In 1999 The swaging company in Woodinville won a multiyear contract with Airbus to design and manufacture swaged tubes for the Airbus 320. The company relocated to a new 40,000 sq ft facility in Monroe to accommodate the new contract.

1998-2001 1994-1996 timeline images

Personal timeline  | Age 53 – 63 years old

During this period of rapid growth, Mike Dunlop designed the quality control software known as Net-Inspect. Twenty-five years later, it has become the most widely used quality software in the aerospace industry, implemented by all the major OEM’s Including Boeing, Airbus, Pratt and Whitney, Rolls Royce, Honeywell, Raytheon Collins, BAE Systems, and Northrop.

Between 2007 and 2011 QPM Aerospace and Net-Inspect were featured six times in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 100 fastest growing private companies in Washington state.

2001-2011 timeline images

Personal timeline  | Age 63 – 74 years old

QPM Aerospace was sold to the Arnprior group with the swaging company sold as a separate company to SKF Sarma.

Net-Inspect grew into a true  global platform and became a standard in the aerospace business with over 7,000 companies in 59 countries using the software.

2011-2022 timeline images

Personal timeline  | Age 74 – 76 years old

In 2022 Mike started a new manufacturing company called Autonomous Machining. Autonomous Machining is one of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the world utilizing robots and software to revolutionize aerospace machining.

Published his book called
“the Art of The Turnaround” 

Created a series of Blogs and podcasts.

2022-2024 timeline images