Mike Mackenzie
In June of 2018, when I was co artistic director of Instant Theatre, a volunteer run improv theatre and school in Vancouver BC with over 20 years of history, we brought on Mike Mackenzie to replace our outgoing general manager. In June of 2019, I stepped down from that position, but shortly thereafter learned that Mike had used his position to steal over $30,000 from the company.
I’ve since learned that Mike Mackenzie, who became known to the company when he directed One Good Marriage at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, has had a history of working with arts organizations and defrauding them of money. In the case of Instant, we were lucky that we had insurance which covered the losses, although the stress of dealing with this greatly contributed to killing the company. When word came out about this, I was approached by many people who informed me about the other organizations that he had worked with (Bard on the Beach, Theatre Under the Stars) and some outside of Vancouver, which may have had similar situations to ours. If you’re googling this man or are considering hiring him into a position where he has access to your accounts, please reach out. Our former head of our board would be happy to talk to you. I only hope a page like this is helpful so that other arts organizations do not make the same mistakes we did.