Mark is the Executive Director of the EITI since 2018, leading the organisation's engagement on extractives transparency and managing the International Secretariat. He is a political scientist with over 30 years of international leadership experience in governance, climate and international development, spanning the worlds of policy-making, research and philanthropy.
Mark joined the EITI from the World Resources Institute (WRI), where he served as global director for the Governance Center. At the WRI, he led the development of an ambitious climate and environmental governance strategy focused on climate resilience, energy access, environmental democracy and natural resource governance. In earlier years, Mark held senior posts at the Department for International Development, the Institute of Development Studies, the Ford Foundation and the Overseas Development Institute. He has deep practical experience in providing policy advice to help countries formulate reforms in areas such as anticorruption, transparency and natural resources. He has held numerous board and advisory roles, and currently serves as Board Chair of the Open Government Partnership Secretariat.
Mark has researched and published extensively on transparency, governance, democratisation, civil society, conflict resolution, development and poverty alleviation issues.
He earned his PhD in Comparative Politics from the University of Sussex, specialising in the politics of contemporary India. He also holds a BA honours degree in Social and Political Science from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Comparative Politics from the University of Sussex.