Mike van Graan is the president of the African Cultural Policy Network, an independent consultant and an award-winning playwright with thirty-four plays under his belt. He is currently a fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) where he is engaged in writing his first novel. Van Graan's recent work in the international arena includes facilitating the Academy for Young Festival Managers, producing the Toolkit on Fairer International Cultural Collaboration with IETM, Dutch Culture, and On-The-Move, collaborating with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture on a cultural entrepreneurship program in Beirut and serving on UNESCO's Expert Facility for the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. He is the 2018 recipient of the Sweden-based Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture Award in recognition of his contribution to the fight against apartheid, and to the interface of peace and culture both in South Africa and across the African continent.