Michał Merczyński is a cultural manager and organizer of diverse artistic, social, and educational events. He has extensive experience collaborating with artists, producers, and policymakers, and has developed and implemented programming strategies. His career includes managing and directing non-governmental organizations as well as municipal and state institutions.

A cultural studies scholar by training, he places great importance on developing international cooperation and building synergies between culture and business. He has been awarded, among others, the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Polityka Passport Award as a Culture Creator.

He is the initiator, founder, long-time director, and president of the MALTA International Theatre Festival (since 2010 known as Malta Festival Poznań). He has directed and shaped institutions such as the Nostalgia Festival, the National Audiovisual Institute (NInA), the Wrocław Festival Forum, the Polish Film Institute, the Four Cultures Dialogue Festival in Łódź, and the Henryk Wieniawski Music Society in Poznań. From 2003 to 2005, he was director of Teatr Rozmaitości, during which Krzysztof Warlikowski created the productions The Tempest, The Dybbuk, and Krum.

He coordinated the National Cultural Programme of Poland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. He is also the author and originator of the 2011 European Culture Congress in Wrocław. Between 2007 and 2013, he served as an expert for the European Commission’s Culture Programme.