Mark was born in Hartlepool; however, he moved away as a small child, but recently reconnected with the town by chairing the Hartlepool Development Corporation.
Having studied Estate Management at Oxford Brookes University in the early nineties, Mark has over thirty years of town centre retail property and regeneration experience, including serving as president of Revo (formerly the British Council of Shopping Centres) and as chair of the government’s High Street Task Force 2020-24.
Having sold his business, Ellandi, in 2024, Mark is currently studying an MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology at the LSE and is chair of fellows at the think tank Radix Big Tent. Mark is also a fellow of the RSA and IPM, and serves on the Blackpool
Town Board and the advisory board of Platform Places.