The board of directors of Dallas-based Meeting Professionals International announced Thursday that it has appointed Bruce M. MacMillan its president and chief executive officer. He takes the post in December.
“With a background in corporate and association management, Bruce is a proven change agent with the strategic business skills, international experience and industry knowledge necessary to drive the development of an organizational structure and business model that will take MPI, its members and chapters to new levels of success,” said Katie Callahan-Giobbi, MPI CEO search committee chair and senior vice president of sales for CVB LA Inc.
MacMillan joins MPI from Tourism Toronto, the Toronto CVB, where he served as president and chief executive officer since January 2003. In three years there, MacMillan led a team that rebuilt and restructured the organization, boosting it from a 49-person, $8.5 million (Canadian) organization to its current 75-person, $28 million level, MPI said. He also helped develop and implement several strategic initiatives to fuel the association’s growth, including the establishment of a new private sector funding mechanism, crafting strategic partnerships with municipalities and the creation of a new branding platform.
MacMillan also has extensive experience working within the MPI organization, having served as MPI’s vice president of marketing and digital services before joining Tourism Toronto. He is a current member of the MPI international board of directors, past chair of the MPI Information Technology Committee, which oversaw the development of MPI’s career development tool MPI Member Solutions, and a member of MPI’s Toronto chapter.
WINNING WHISTLER BID
Earlier in his career, he served as chief operating officer for Ad2Media.com, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based business-to-business Internet venture, and as the executive director for the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Bid Society, where he was responsible for developing and executing all aspects of Vancouver-Whistler’s successful Canadian 2010 Winter Olympics bid.
Based at MPI’s international headquarters in Dallas, MacMillan will lead the association’s 75-person staff, which includes offices in Europe and Canada. He will manage an $18 million budget, while overseeing all membership programs and services and working closely with MPI’s directors to guide the association’s vision and industry growth. He will also serve as liaison to the MPI Foundation, MPI’s research and development arm dedicated to advancing the meetings and event profession.
“I’m honored to be returning to MPI in this new role at a time when the organization is so strong and poised for new opportunities,” MacMillan said. “A lot of hard work has already been completed, and I’m excited about the prospects for further growth as we work to create more value for our members and to build on the board’s clear vision for the future.”
