Michael Rice was born and raised in Kahnawake and is a Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) of the Bear Clan. He is founder and past manager of the Caisse Populaire Kahnawake, the largest Indigenous credit union in North America.
He has worked over 35 years as an access to capital and institutional development specialist in the areas of housing, commercial, developmental business, venture capital and infrastructure financing and is currently self-employed, operating under the name of ATC Innovators.
His housing work over the years has been with the credit union, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Community Infrastructure Branch, Housing as a Business (HaaB), and the Kahnawake Housing Department in initiatives to move First Nations communities to private home ownership.
He currently sits on the Investment Committee of the $150 Million Indigenous Growth Fund and the board of the First Nations Venture Capital Partnership of Quebec. Mr. Rice holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business, the University of Western Ontario. He is married with two sons and resides in Kahnawake.