Mike Fanning was a member of The Cadets Visual Staff from 2003 to 2011, serving as the Visual Caption Manager from 2007 to 2010. From 2014 to 2019, Fanning was the Visual Caption Manager at the Bluecoats, where he was instrumental in leading the corps to their first and only DCI World Championship. He returned to The Cadets family in 2023 as a Visual Consultant, and he expands his role with the corps as Visual Consultant/Supervisor for the 2024 season.

Mike marched 11 seasons of drum corps as a member of the Emerald Knights, the Bluecoats, and The Cadets, where he aged out as a contra player in 1999.

He has worked with drum corps, marching bands and drum lines from across the U.S., Canada and Europe. When not with The Cadets, Mike Fanning is a music teacher and drum line director at Michael Power/St. Joseph Catholic High School in Toronto, Ontario.