BORN AND RAISED

Michael Durand was born on Friday, October 7, 1955 in Merrick on Long Island in New York, U.S.A. Education started with kindergarten through eighth grade at Cure of Ars Roman Catholic school. Michael attended the ninth grade at Merrick Avenue Junior High School and was involved in little league baseball throughout his youth.

HIGH SCHOOL

Michael spent three important years at Sanford H. Calhoun High School in Merrick where he took on many leadership roles: Student Government - Junior Class Representative to the Excecutive Board; Treasurer; Student Representative to the Board of Education Philosophy of Education Committee; and Founder and Chairman of the Ecology Committee.

Writer for "Hoofbeats," the school newspaper. Varsity Gymnastics.

JUNIOR COLLEGE

Michael spent one year at Nassau County Community college where he earned honors on the Dean's List and was the leading contributing photographer for "Illusions," the college yearbook. Michael was also a writer and photographer for the student newspaper "Vignette" and was the publications representative to the student council.

Michael worked part-time in a biomedical laboratory producing petri dishes (agar plates) for medical diagnostics.

UNIVERSITY

The State University of New York at Stony Brook was Michael's home for three years. As an English major and Journalism minor, Michael was the Feature Editor, then the Feature/Arts Director, of "Statesman," the University's student newspaper. He was an elected Senator from his 200 student dorm and the communications representative to the Student Government.

CALIFORNIA

In 1977 Michael finished Stony Brook and moved to California. After one year in San Diego,

Michael moved to San Francisco where he lived for 20 years.

THE EIGHTIES - SHAKLEE CORPORATION

The first ten years was working for the Shaklee Corporation in the Travel Planning department, part of a team that planned and implemented dozens of  large conventions each year, including the "Silver Jubilee" celebrating Shaklee's 25th Anniversary. Over 1,000 people each were housed in San Francisco's Mark Hopkins, Hyatt Regency and St. Francis hotels. Davies Symphony Hall, in the pre-convention center days, held the group's general session. Shaklee and the St. Francis hotel turned an empty pier at Fort Mason into an elegant dining room for 3,000 people. At that time, it was the largest sit-down dinner in San Francisco's history.

THE NINETIES

After 10 years of service to the Shaklee Corporation and several years of planning conventions and incentive travel programs for The Concept Group, a small independent event management company in San Francisco, Michael Durand joined Rosenbluth International, the nation's third largest travel company, as a Meeting Planner in the early 1990's and helped open a new six-person west coast Meeting and Incentive Division. Within two years, Michael was promoted to Senior Meeting Planner, then Supervisor of the Meeting Planning Department and worked with upper management to grow from 6 to 22 full-time employees in four years. Of the many career highlights, Michael is most proud of his four years of success as Program Director for Financial Network Investment Corporation (their meetings grew from 850 to 1,100 to 1,300 and 1700 people), his program management of a 750-person group for Hitachi with participants from 21 countries from around the world, and his role as Project Manager for a very successful 2,700-person convention for Chevron.

In 1998 Michael Durand moved to Pasadena, California.

DURAND PRODUCTIONS

When Michael Durand started durand productions in 1995, his goal was to provide high quality services

in three areas by using both sides of his detailed and artistic brain*.

Today, Michael continues on with his 28-year career as meeting planner and special event producer.

Michael's ongoing partnership with Peter Miller of Creative Planning is another career highlight.

Assisting Peter with his incentive groups and hiring Peter for durand productions' programs

continues strong to this day, a long way from their first meeting in 1988.

He also stays active in the creative world of photography, videography, editing, and television production.

Michael Durand is the Producer and Director of "All the World's a Stage," Pasadena's Television of Arts and Culture.

His video and photography have appeared regularly on cable television since 1999. Clips have been used by the Travel Channel, local news stations, various websites, newsletters and presentations. Michael's videos were shown on two screens for special events at locations including Caltech's Athenaeum and the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.

Michael also plays background piano at special functions and events, and

receives great joy by unlocking the secrets of music to new students

by teaching some simple secrets to students of all ages who wish

they could learn piano and guitar.

2005

durand productions introduces a new division called "Destination Pasadena"

to welcome incoming groups by providing assistance with

transportation, staffing, tours, attractions, restaurants,

multimedia presentations, meeting planning and special event production.

Please visit experience for 2006 and beyond

THEN AND NOW

*The concept that the left brain is used in analytical thinking and the right brain is used for spacial-visual thought won Pasadena's Caltech Biologist Robert Sperry a Nobel Prize in 1981.