Andrea Elizabeth Michaels (née Gerson; born December 14, 1943) is an American meeting and event producer, author and speaker. As founder of an international event production company, Extraordinary Events, Michaels and her company produce large corporate events. She is an original member of the special events industry Hall of Fame and the author of a business biography, and is featured in three anthologies. Early life Andrea Michaels was born in the Arbe concentration camp (today Rab, Croatia, on the northern shore of the Adriatic Sea) to Lelja Kauders (b. Zagreb, Yugoslavia, August 25, 1923 – d. Los Angeles California, May 30, 2009). Michaels and her mother, along with her mother's Jewish parents, Paul (Palvo) Kauders and Elza Ackerman Kauders, escaped in a small boat across the Adriatic to Italy. Michaels lived in Italy to the age of four with her grandparents until her mother, who had married an American pilot, sent for her to come live in America. The marriage ended, and after Michaels arrived in America, her mother married Peter Gerson, who adopted Andrea and moved the family from Silverlake, California, to Hollywood. When Michaels was ten, the family moved to Burbank, California. An only child Michaels graduated from Burbank High School in 1961. Michaels attended the University of California at Berkeley in 1961 and 1962, transferring to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) before marrying Bob Spritz on February 1, 1964. The marriage lasted ten years, and they had a son, Jon (b. July 24, 1970). After her divorce from Spritz, she changed her last name as well as that of her son's to "Michaels." Michaels returned to UCLA in 1970 and earned a degree, with honors, in Psychology. Early career Instead of pursuing a career in Psychology, Michaels began working with the Ron Rubin Orchestras in 1973. During that time, she became interested in the event planning business when there was no formalized industry. She produced her first event in 1978—-a bicentennial celebration for Marsh McClellan Insurance Company. By 1982, the company had been restructured and renamed Michaels, Rubin and Associates. Michaels and Rubin dissolved their relationship in December 1988, and on that same day, Extraordinary Events was launched. At that time, Michaels began to bring to the corporate world the spectaculars that had been produced on football fields, Disneyland and in entertainment venues by the late Tommy Walker and the late Robert (Bob) Jani.