Michael Granek, MBA, is a successful entrepreneur and an award-winning event producer with over two decades of experience in the event and meetings industry and a decade of experience in higher education. As President, COO, of the Event Leadership Institute, Michael applies his diverse background of business management, adult education and special events experience to connect event professionals with leading industry education, training, and professional development.

Previous to the Event Leadership Institute, Michael discovered his passion for fostering the next generation of event leaders during his role as Academic Director at The Art Institute of Vancouver. In this position, Michael led the program’s department and faculty, designed and developed curriculum, instructed various event and business courses, developed unparalleled partnerships between the events industry, bringing unique certification, industry learning and career opportunities to students. He was instrumental in integrating Meeting & Business Events Competency Standards into the curriculum, resulting in a milestone articulation agreement with The Canadian Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC), bringing unique certification, industry learning and career opportunities to students.

Michael has also participated in the MPI Meeting and Business Events Competency Standards (MBECS) Faculty Forum, many industry advisory committees and boards, judged various event industry awards, and delivered numerous seminars and training workshops at leading industry conferences, colleges, and universities internationally.