Mark is a published author on the topic of Equality and Diversity having authored the Law Society E&D Risk & Compliance Toolkit which assists law firms to comply with regulation and is the co-author of research published for Arts Council England on Goal 5: Equality & Diversity for Young People in the arts. Mark has delivered numerous diversity and inclusion projects in the UK and internationally for organisations across a wide variety of sectors. Mark is an executive committee member of the R.I.D.I. (Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative) campaign and a Non-executive Director of NHS Property Services with responsibility for People, Culture, Diversity & Inclusion.
In January 2016 Mark took up the role as Head of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion for HS2. Under Mark’s leadership, HS2 have won a number of EDI Awards including the 2017 ENEI Awards for Inclusive Procurement, Innovation with impact and Overall Public Sector Winner categories, three REACH Society awards for its work Inspiring Young BAME Individuals, Professional Role Models & Corporate Champions categories, The Apollo Award for Best Supplier Diversity Programme, the Women in Rail “Top Employer” 2018 award, ENEI Inclusive Procurement Award 2018, Gold Award for the ENEI TIDE benchmark, MSDUK Global Inclusive Procurement Award 2018 and the VERCIDA No.1 Gender Inclusive Employer in the UK 2018. In 2019 Mark won Head of Diversity of the year at the Inclusive Companies annual Diversity Awards and in 2020 was named on the People Magazine Top 20 Diversity & Inclusion Powerlist and in 2021 was recognised by D&I Leader co. as one of the Top 100 Global inspirational D&I Leaders. In 2021, Mark was awarded FCIPD, fellowship status of Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.
Mark joined Lloyd’s as Head of Culture in January 2022. In September 2022 Mark was recognised by Hive Learning as one of the Top 75 DEI professionals in EMEA making a lasting impact on inclusive culture.
Mark has lead Lloyd’s to Gold standard on the Clear Assured Accreditation framework, to Disability Confident Leader status and won awards for Lloyd’s diversity focussed leadership and mentoring programmes. Under Mark’s leadership, the international Diversity Festival, Dive In has evolved and now includes an outreach and reverse mentoring programme, engaging over 35,000 people with participants from 84 countries globally.
In 2023 Mark was made a Fellow of the 5% Club, a group of major employers investing in apprenticeships and early career opportunities. Under Mark’s leadership Lloyd’s Market achieved it’s target of 35% Women in Leadership set in 2019 as a cross-market aggregate target.
In 2024, Mark won the VERCIDA Inclusive Initiative of the year award for his work on the research into Lloyd’s history with Trans-Atlantic slavery and Inclusive Futures, Lloyd’s response. Further details of which are set out below:
In 2020 at the height of the BLM campaign, focus was on Lloyd’s and its role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Lloyd’s apologised for its role in the slave economy and committed to research, reflect and respond to our past. This included a number of interim commitments including employing an archivist and conducting research on Lloyd’s history, creating a research project with the highest ethical standards, creating the 1 in 3 hiring ambition, introducing the Accelerate career development programme and charity funding.
Mark took up delivery of this project to deliver when he started with Lloyd’s in 2022. We then established an independent research collaboration with Black beyond data from Johns Hopkins University delivering editorially and financially independent research delivering a digital humanities platform for the public good.
2022: Working Groups, Focus Groups with 200+ ethnically diverse colleagues, case studies, Honest Conversations video, Black Beyond Data Agreement signed, Identified first Black Broker via Focus group work​
2023: Webpage publications, Black Expert panel review, Inclusive Future Response development, CEO and Chairs Briefing, Lloyd’s Leadership Training on Underwriting Souls, Coalition Partner Recruitment, Bearing Witness Exhibition, Diverse & Inclusive Champions Exhibition, Underwriting Souls Launch, Inclusive Future’s launch​
2024: Full Inclusive Future’s Programme Delivery begins​
The impact that has been delivered include:
3,000+ hires of ethnically diverse people into the Lloyd’s Market​
Accelerate Ethnic Minority Development programme is now award winning with promotion rates ranging from 75-83% having delivered 6 cohorts​
Market improvement from 15%-21% against the 1 in 3 hiring ambition and ​Improvement from 25% to 34.7% for Lloyd’s Corporation between 2022-2024
Inclusive Futures has delivered over 5,000 ethnically diverse hires with a salary value of over £136m and will provide thousands of opportunities.
https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/culture/lloyds-market/diversity-and-inclusion/inclusive-futures