Board Member Spotlight: Mike Rivard

Mike Rivard received a B.S. in Forest Utilization from The University of Maine at Orono in 1979 and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 1986.  After working for Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, PA, for two years, Mike and his family moved back to Maine, where he was CFO and then CEO of Lavalley Lumber Company, a privately owned forest-products manufacturing business.

Mike most recently worked in the investment management industry for twenty-three years, five years with UBS Timber Investors and eighteen years with Hancock Natural Resource Group, with a focus on global timberland and farmland investing for institutional investors.  Mike has a strong, sustained yield and land conservation background and is dedicated to preserving natural resources through sustainable multi-use practices.

After retiring from Hancock, Mike formed an advisory firm, Pine Haven Advisors LLC, working with corporate, investment management, and institutional investor clients on acquisitions, structuring, capital raising, and strategy projects in the real asset classes of timberland and farmland globally.

Mike has been a Board member of the Sleeping Bear Gateways Council since 2018. He also volunteered with the Grand Traverse Conservation District to raise necessary funds to initiate a farm incubator, the Great Lakes Incubator Farm, at the Meyer Farm in Traverse City.

Mike and his wife, Anne, have vacationed in Leelanau County for 43 years.  They spend their summers on Lake Michigan in Glen Arbor and winter on a small farm in Cedar, MI.  Their goal is to return all or part of the farm to active agriculture.