Mark spent his career on the world’s frontlines, beginning as a journalist covering both the rise of Margaret Thatcher and later global issues, then as a humanitarian leading UN field operations across the world’s trouble spots, before an extraordinary decade spent as a political consultant at the side of new democratic leaders battling authoritarians for power from Latin America to Russia and the Philippines.
These experiences set him up for his years at the top of the international system — at the elbow of individuals like Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, George Soros, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He ran the UN Development Programme before becoming Annan’s top deputy, then was President of Open Society Foundations, and a minister covering Africa, Asia and the international system in the Brown government.
Even as a participant he never lost the detached eye of the journalist. His memoir, The Unfinished Global Revolution, combines insights into the possibilities and shortcomings of international co-operation passed through the filter of personal biography. He is now a principal in a shortly-launching AI large language model-integrated platform that, paired with a panel of leading experts, seeks to identify corporate risk through continuously scanning a range and depth of global data that no human team alone could effectively sustain.
Whether motivating a corporate audience or entertaining an after-dinner one, his mix of reminiscence, humour and insight is uniquely compelling.