Michael Downey

Mr. Downey has extensive executive management experience in pro and amateur sport, and consumer packaged goods. Michael retired from full time employment in December 2023. In 2025, Michael was the interim CEO for Gymnastics Canada where he led the development of the Win+ Strategy for the organization. Michael sits on other amateur sport boards and is an advisor to the greater, a consulting agency and social enterprise.

During his 15 years as CEO of Tennis Canada, Mr. Downey led the complete overhaul of the high-performance program including the establishment of Canada’s first ever, National Tennis Centre in Montreal, three regional U14 programs and the hiring of world renown coaches. Many Canadians developed in the program achieved top 10 world singles rankings and Canada won for the first time ever, Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup world team titles, respectively.

Mr. Downey oversaw British Tennis for four years, the first expatriate to lead the 130-year-old LTA. He led the development of a plan which reversed a decade long decline in grassroots participation and revamped the entire British pro grass court circuit leading up to Wimbledon.

Mr. Downey has also held senior executive positions with Molson Canada and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. After graduating from Western University in 1980 with an undergraduate degree in Business, Michael had a successful 8 year run at Warner Lambert both in Canada and as an expatriate Marketing and Sales Director based in Jakarta Indonesia.

In 2023, Michael was awarded the prestigious ACA Gold Medal in recognition of over 30 years’ experience as an exemplary marketing leader and most notably as Tennis Canada’s CEO.

Michael lives in Delta, BC with his wife Jinder. They have three adult children, Schara, Mac and Sam.