About Mark
I am passionate about the power of effective and pragmatic risk management combined with authentic and humble leadership to get the best outcomes. As a state-school working class gay boy who was orphaned as a teenager I developed resilience through burying myself in maths and data which eventually led to my training as an actuary (luckily with a scholarship from an insurance company as I could not afford it on my own). I quickly learnt that data can be powerful and that it can be used for good.
At the age of 29 I became Mercer Consulting's youngest Managing Director when I led its Hong Kong operations. This was both professionally and personally fascinating and an amazing learning experience; my 6 years in HK spanned the period both before and after the UK's handover of Hong Kong back to China. To be thrown into an entirely different culture at a young age and at such a pivotal stage of my career was incredible.
Over the last 40 years, I have served on the of C-suites of major global financial services companies in Australia and the UK and I have been a member of major boards in South Africa, Sweden, Ireland, the UK and Europe. I have succesfully overseen and guided large and complex transformations and simplified the often jargon-filled risk approaches to make them strategic and business focussed.
My advice is frank and fearless and (I hope!) always diplomatic. When I work with people and organisations I always seek an alignment of values and ethics. This has not always happened but has not prevented me from providing ethical advice in the moment - sometimes to my own detriment.
I have always built diverse and inclusive teams as everyone thrives with diverse perspectives. When people with different lived experiences get together to problem solve - we get great outcomes. Diversity & inclusion are my passion as it delivers great results.
Wherever I have worked I have always tried to help vulnerable and under-represented communities, I am sure that this is a result of my working class upbringing and that I am a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, I believe in paying it forward.
