Michael S. Ladah was born in Jafa, a part of what is now Tel Aviv-Yafo, in a time when Palestine was ruled by the British. He became a refugee at the age of seven when he moved with his parents, brothers, sisters and his extended family to the West Bank of the Jordan River.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Michael attended the Friends Boys School, an American high school, and worked in his father’s machine shop, first as an apprentice then as a precision lathe operator. During his school years, Michael was a political activist, participating in numerous protests against the injustices and misery that befell the Palestinians as they lost their homes and their homeland. He was sympathetic to the principles of the Ba'th Arab Socialist Party and supported its political activities and agenda. Ironically, this act of sympathy with the Ba'th and his defiance of the social and political injustices were inspired and nourished by the knowledge he gained at the Friends Boys School, especially in his lessons about the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence.

Michael left Ramallah in 1960 in search of educational opportunities. After completing his freshman year at Haigazian University in Beirut, Lebanon, Michael traveled to the United States where he earned two degrees in engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Michael worked as a design engineer and a project engineer in Detroit, then he spent 22 years, the remainder of his professional career, with the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) in Saudi Arabia.

The author retired from the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) in 1994. He currently lives with his family in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is an adjunct faculty member teaching international business and project management at the University of Phoenix, Las Vegas Campus. Michael donates a considerable portion of his time supporting The Ladah Foundation, a non-profit, charitable, tax-exempt organization.

In his book "Quicksand, Oil and Dreams", the author provides a unique and personal perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the plight of the Palestinians under the watchful eyes of Arab Governments.