Michael K. Hayde was born and raised in Compton, California. He has enjoyed and benefited from living in Southern California all his life. In his formative years his family instilled in him the traditional values of Irish Catholicism. He has had mentors his whole life and learned early on from those with more experience who were willing to help him. Mike has been fortunate to work at Western National Group, a company founded 60 years ago and based in Orange County, for 47 years. He has been CEO since 1994.
Together with Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates, he founded Drug Use is Life Abuse, a nationally recognized American non-profit organization that teaches young people in Orange County the consequences of drug abuse. He is an active donor to Big Brothers Big Sisters, Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the Boy Scouts of Orange County, City of Hope, the University of California Irvine Medical Center, and Chapman University.
Mike is a member of United Way’s Ten Million Dollar “Round Table,” Founding Trustee of United Way Tocqueville in Paris, France and Spain; member of the Global Leadership Council of United Way Worldwide; Trustee of United Way España, and was the recipient of United Way’s Honorary Tocqueville Award in 2013.
