Lay member profile

Mark recently joined Anglian Water to become CEO of the company responsible for the largest area in the country, with some 6000 staff and 7m customers. Prior to this, as the CEO of High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd, Mark had the ultimate responsibility for leading the company that is charged with delivering a new high speed railway that will connect the major cities of the UK.

Mark joined HS2 Ltd in March 2017 and stood down at the end of September 2023. At the time of his departure, HS2 employed 1800 people, with the majority of staff working at its headquarters in Birmingham; at the peak of construction in early 2023 there were some 30,000 people working on the programme across the UK.

Mark has over 30 years’ experience including leadership roles in engineering, project and programme management and business operations, and worked on both the London 2012 Olympics and Crossrail. He was previously the European MD of engineering and projects company CH2M and started his career as a technician apprentice at London Underground.

Mark attained a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in 1986 as part of his 4-year apprenticeship and has subsequently received a Master’s degree in Engineering (Project) Management from the Civil Engineering school at Loughborough University.

Mark is a Visiting Professor at both the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction at UCL and the School of Complex Project and Programme Leadership at Loughborough University. He has received an Honorary Doctorate of Technology from the University of East London (UEL) and Loughborough University. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Project Management (FAPM), a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (FICE), a member of Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET) and a Chartered Electrical Engineer (CEng).