Michael Iannini
Michael is ACAMIS’s Leadership Development Facilitator, Search Associates Contracted HR PD Coordinator for China, and an affiliated Council of International School’s (CIS) consultant with the following areas of expertise:
Appraisal and professional development
Leadership training
School governance
Strategic planning
“Michael’s expertise has contributed immensely to the building of an effective Board. He has been instrumental in the development of a sustainable HOS performance evaluation process, building upon the benchmark evaluators of his Success Profile Analysis and has facilitated our Board review and training, bringing governors together for an annual reflection and deep dive into the work for the year and driving strategic direction for the year ahead.”
— Edward Lau - Board Chair & Derek Pinchbeck - Head of School, International College Hong Kong
His journey in education began 20 years ago as a research assistant at Arizona State University’s Child Development Laboratory, where he was an early years educator and researcher. Since moving to China in 1999, originally as an Early Years Teacher, Michael has advised and trained the Boards and Leadership of hundreds of International Schools across Asia. His work has helped small and large schools facilitate real strategic planning, develop leadership across the school, implement best practices for human resource management, and design staff capacity-building programs for both academic and non-academic staff.
Michael’s first book, Hidden in Plain Site: Realizing the Full Potential of Middle Leaders, is the foundation for all his leadership development work. Since writing this book he launched www.middleleader.com where he is regularly posting articles on school leadership and interviews with school leadership influencers.
Michael Iannini’s long tenure with ACAMIS, and recent partnership with Search Associates, have been attributed to his extensive experience in the Chinese International Education Market and stewardship of their respective members. Michael’s success has repeatedly been attributed to:
the considerable amount of time he devotes to every project to ensure its success
consistent engagement with project stakeholders to understand their needs and address their concerns
his ability to adapt and guide stakeholders through complex and constantly shifting environments, and
his genuine desire to see every school realize their expected project outcomes, no matter the cost to himself.
“Michael’s work with our Board has empowered us to take positive, purposeful actions in the areas that are likely to generate the greatest return on investment in terms of improving Board performance. I would also like to commend Michael on being very accommodating and flexible throughout this process.”
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What People Are Saying
Listen to YCIS's experience in developing a mentoring culture at their schools.
“
The training has been very successful and has enabled our middle leaders, some of whom are fairly inexperienced, to develop a wider understanding of the leadership role and be provided with tools to scaffold their leadership journey.
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— DR. HELEN KELLY
Lower School Principal, Canadian International School of Hong Kong
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Michael helped us to understand each parties governing responsibilities and facilitated discussions to focus our work for the coming year. This led to the school contracting Michael to design and facilitate our international recruitment process for the new Head of School.
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— JOHN WILSON
Chairman of Board of Governor, International College Hong Kong – Hong Lok Yuen
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Michael involved himself deeply in the project, spending several days a month in Shanghai over the course of 9 months to administer the needs analysis, train our managers and support them in the development of PD opportunities for their staff, and also develop such opportunities himself with his team at PDAcademia. His contribution to our school has been very beneficial.
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— EMMANUEL BONIN
Deputy Head, School Shanghai American School
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The consensus of our team was the successful outcome derived from Michael’s careful pre-analysis, including perceptive interviews of the participants before the program commenced, and an uncommon ability by anecdotal good humor to draw out everybody’s opinions, encouraging interactive discussion and create a sense of common ownership.
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— JOHN PATRICK BASKETT
The J.S.P. Schools Association
