Before taking the reins as editor in chief of Hospitality Design magazine in 2000, Michael Adams received an undergraduate degree from the School of Speech at Northwestern University in Chicago. He went on to receive a master’s from the School of Speech at the University of Washington in 1971 and a Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1978. Following a stint as an associate professor at Chico State University in California, Adams entered the editorial world in 1985 as an associate editor for Successful Meetings magazine. He transitioned to Restaurant Business as executive editor in 1997 before joining Hospitality Design, where he helped spearhead legacy programs including HD‘s Platinum Circle hall-of-fame event and the HD Awards program, which is now in its 16th year.
In Hospitality Design’s March/April 2020 issue, editor in chief Stacy Shoemaker Rauen writes:
“On a personal note, by the time you have this in your hands, I will have celebrated 18 years with the brand (yes, I was a teenager when I started). On March 11th, 2002, I entered the building excited about my job as an associate editor at a magazine for an industry I didn’t know much about but was hopeful I would love. My younger self had no idea how much that would be true. That position was handed to me by our then editor in chief, Michael Adams. He picked my résumé out of the pile because we had both attended Northwestern University in Chicago. He took a chance on me and forever changed my life for the better. The career I have today is due to his patient teaching, his unwavering support and encouragement, his collaborative leadership, his talent and wit, and, above all else, his friendship.
On March 12th, 2020, one day after I started 18 years ago, he will have retired his hat as editorial director and finish his decades-long career with our company and brand. We at HD want him to know how much he will be missed, and I want to publicly thank him for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime.”
