Michael C. Mitchell
Founder & CEO

An internationally recognized destination, lifestyle and community planner and designer, Mr. Mitchell has contributed to more than 2,000 projects in 59 countries over his nearly 40-year career. Among his most well-known successes was serving as Group Vice President of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where he was responsible for the planning and support operations of the Games and its 56 Olympic venues.

Mr. Mitchell has served as a senior planning consultant to six other Olympic Games, four World Fairs, and has worked with many of the largest leisure, recreation and property development companies in the world, as well as dozens of national and city governments. His feasibility and planning work focuses on four primary practices: Leisure & Tourism (resorts, hotels, theme parks, water parks and attractions); Cultural & Heritage (museums, cultural and heritage sites and performance theaters); Lifestyle & Entertainment (mixed-use facilities, residential communities, golf resorts, children’s centers and entertainment facilities); and Sustainable Design (LEED building design, sustainable communities and eco-resorts).

Mr. Mitchell has been a leader in green initiatives throughout his career from work in the early 1970’s planning the first residential community with a fully recycled gray water system to his current work on self-sustaining communities in Europe and China.

Mr. Mitchell is a frequent guest lecturer at leading U.S. and Chinese universities and has written extensively on destination planning, economic real estate modeling and experiential lifestyle developments.

Claudia Zhang
General Manager of
MCM China

Claudia Zhang is a civil engineer and landscape architect, with a wide variety of experiences in both disciplines. She earned her Civil Engineering Degree from Tianjin Institute of Urban Construction and a graduate Landscape Architect Degree from Beijing Forestry University. Ms Zhang began her career in Tianjin institute of Landscape planning & design. She joined MCM Group in 2005. She has been the General Manager
of MCM China operations since 2008.

Ms. Zhang’s responsibilities include supervising MCM’s daily operations in China including personnel, budgets, project management and client relations. She has personally managed over 200 projects for MCM in China. In her previous work she has provided the planning and landscape design direction for many prominent Chinese projects, for example: Chongqing Jiangjin Country Paradise
(33 km²), Wanxin Group Urban Farm Project(km²), Luneng Longquan Country Paradise(13km²) , Yili Group International Football Town(530hm²), Tomato Girl Parent-Child Farm(7.3hm²)，Qingdao Cangma Mountain International Resort Planning （18 km²), ZRTG Xiangshan Film Theme Park Planning （67hm²）, Shandong Hengtai Mata Lake Resort Planning （30 km²), Beijing COFCO Agriculture Ecological Valley Planning （160hm²), Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Planning and so on. Beijing COFCO Agriculture Ecological Valley and Nanjing Youth Olympic Games Planning has won Bronze and Golden Award from Society of American Registered Architecture. Qingdao Cangma Mountain International Resort has won many awards and was invited to attend Venice Biennale.

Ms. Zhang has developed the trust of numerous municipalities and developers throughout China through her straightforward, open minded, and timely approach to completing projects.

Daniel Shirk, AIA, LEED AP
Senior Designer

Daniel Shirk brings over 25 years of senior design experience on a wide variety of projects including office, hotel, residential, mixed-use, institutional, recreational and civic both in the U.S. and in China.

Mr. Shirk has been the lead designer on such significant projects as the $1 billion Wilshire Grand Hotel and office complex in Los Angeles, featuring a 700 room luxury hotel and a 60 story office tower; the North Hollywood Transit Development in Los Angeles which is a 200,000 SM mixed-use center that includes four office towers, an arts complex, a childcare facility, retail and entertainment facilities and a variety of multi-family residential communities.

Mr. Shirk has been a senior designer on projects in China for over fifteen years. They include such notable projects as the Fu-Tien Sports Center in Shenzhen, an 80,000 SM community sports center featuring a 5,000 seat stadium, two gymnasiums, a swimming hall, athletic buildings, hotel, retail and entertainment facilities. Other developments in China include a 1.2 square km urban plan for Tianjin; a 50,000 SM Bank of China office tower in Dalian; a 25 story Fu-Yuan residential tower; a 25 story residential tower in Shenzhen; a master plan for the Dalian Central Business District; and the Furama Hotel in Tianjin to name but a few.

Daniel has been honored numerous times by the Society of American Registered architects including several Awards for Design excellence and Honor Awards. He serves as the lead designer for MCM.

Francesco Matinata
Senior Design Director

Francesco Matinata graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of Politecnico of Torino in 1990. For more than 150 years, the Politecnico di Torino has been one of Europe’s leading public universities in all facets of architecture and engineering. Francesco has over-ten year’s experience of teaching and conducting research at the prestigious Politecnico di Torino. In addition to his academic contributions Francesco has over-25 year’s experience in design throughout the world. His clients include such Italian corporate luminaries as Benetton and Bertone and numerous international developers and government entities.

Since 2010, Francesco has dedicated his design work in China. As Senior Design Director he has guided major MCM projects including: Luneng Chongqing Jiangjin “Country Paradise”, Luneng Chengdu Longquanyi “Country Paradise”, Luneng Chongqing Hechuan Tourism Destination, Guizhou Xingyi Karst Kindom Tourism Destination, Shiyan Hanjiang River Torism Plan, and the New office of Bertone in Shanghai to name a few of his contributions.

Chunlin Yang, AIA
Senior Designer

Mr. Yang graduated from the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture in 1989 and went on to receive a Master of Regional Planning from Kansas State University and a Master of Architecture from the University of Illinois. Mr. Yang is a registered USA architect with 28 years of experience in the United States, the Middle East and China.

Before joining MCM, he worked on a variety of projects gaining mastery in residential design, office buildings, urban planning projects, government buildings, hotels and redevelopment projects. Mr. Yang’s wide experience includes participating as a senior architectural designer, senior project manager and planning and design director. He currently serves as a senior manager of MCM’s Tianjin office.

John Wells
Senior Designer

Mr. Wells is a highly regarded design professional with extensive experience in the creation and delivery of prominent hospitality, gaming and themed entertainment projects world-wide. Mr. Wells began his illustrious career as a lead creative designer for Forrec for five years . His work there was predominantly resort master planning, themed concept creation and themed façade design.

Over his twenty-five year professional career he has worked on many internationally renowned projects as a master planner, designer, or project manager. A few of the U.S. projects include the Fontainebleau Resort Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada where he was Senior Project Manager of Design for the $2.9 billion resort development; Universal Studios, Orlando Resort, Orlando, Florida; Countdown to Extinction, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Orlando, Florida; Disney’s Board Walk Re-Development, Orlando, Florida; Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Key West, Florida; J.W. Marriott – Grand Lakes Resort, Orlando, Florida; and Portofino Bay Hotel, Universal Escape, Orlando, Florida to name just a few.

Mr. Well’s international experience includes such notable projects as Sandals – Royal Bahamian Resort, Nassau, Bahamas; Lulu Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Sky-Dome Re-Development Plan, Toronto, Canada; Bracebridge Downtown Re-Development Plan, Bracebridge, Canada; Curious George Goes to the Beach Water Park, Dubai, UAE; Deira City Center – Themed Attraction, Dubai, UAE; Doha – Grand Park, Doha, Qatar; Leo-land, Central City, Bangkok, Thailand; and Viveros Resort, Pearl Islands, Panama.

Since joining MCM as Design Director in China, John has worked on several projects including resorts, theme parks and city planning.

In addition to his planning and design expertise, John has been an avid advocate and practitioner of green design and building practices for over 20 years.

John received his undergraduate degree in Landscape architecture from the University of Guelph, Toronto, Canada and M.L.A. Design Study Exchange (1 Year program) from California State Polytechnic Pomona, USA.