About Us

The founder and organizer of PwC Epic Tour Halton is Michael Merrall.

Michael is the President & CEO of the High Performance Group of Companies. He has been a fixture in the Canadian sports business landscape since 1983.  During his career, he has been named by the Globe & Mail as one of the 10 most powerful people in sports and his projects have raised close to $3 million for Canadian charities including Right To Play and Ronald McDonald House Charities.  Often cited as one of the most creative executives in the industry, Michael has created or co-created a long list of major events and high profile sports marketing properties:

• Founder – Stars On Ice (12 cities / CBC)
• Founder – Telus Skins Game (CBC/TSN)
• Founder – Canadian Professional Figure Skating Championships (CBS/CTV)
• Founder – Chrysler Nations Cup LPGA event (CBC)
• Founder – RMCC Wayne Gretzky & Friends (Global TV)
• Founder – Gold Championship (NBC/Global TV)
• Founder – Skate The Nation (16 cities)
• Founder – Goodyear Drive For Gold (Hockey Canada – 67 cities)
• Executive Producer – Reflections of Gold DVD Series (6.2 million discs)
• Executive Producer – MVP Hockey DVD Series (General Mills / 1 million discs)
• Executive Producer – Steve Nash Charity Classic
• Co-Founder – Allstate All-Canadians (NHLPA)

The Director of Events for High Performance Marketing is Danica Spencer.  Danica has a business management degree from the University of Western Ontario where she played for the varsity rugby team and she was President of the Athletic Student Council.

Danica has run a range of events for High Performance including private cycling events for companies like CIBC, Lexus and Blakes Law Firm.

As the Event Director for PwC Epic Tour, Danica has overseen all aspects of the planning, marketing, customer service, sponsor relations and operations.

Other Cycling Projects

Through our partnership with cycling Olympian Curt Harnett and Gears Bike Shop, we organize private corporate cycling events for a variety of companies including CIBC, Blakes Law Firm, Hatch Engineering, Barometer Capital, Lexus Canada and others. Click here to learn more.

My First Fondo is our instructional program designed to equip less experienced riders with the skills and confidence to participate in group rides, club rides and mass-participation events.  Clinics are offered throughout the GTA in the summer months. Click here to learn more.

The Kelso MTB Fondo was inaugurated in 2015 as a complement to PwC Epic Tour.  With route distances of 14K 28K and 42K, this "lifestyle mountain bike event" takes advantage of the great trail system at the Kelso Conservation Area. Click here to learn more.

HPM has applied its expertise on both cycling and marketing communication to create cycling tour maps for 2 major municipal tourism jurisdictions: Halton Region and York Region.  Hundreds of thousands of these maps are in broad distribution across the province.  Click here to visit Halton map.  Click here to visit York Region map.

Our Full Body of Work - Click here to see the full scope of projects that our Founder has undertaken since starting in the sports management and marketing industry well over 30 years ago.

HPM created and donated a website and application software that powers a virtual bike challenge that has been tested and optimized over 3 years in the field.  The Halton Hills Community Cycling Challenge has raised over $240,000 for the Georgetown Hospital Foundation and engaged close to 2% of the Town's population in a healthy, active living.