Interim Europe Regional Director
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
Mark leads the team that supports EITI implementing countries in Europe, including Albania, Armenia, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. He also leads the International Secretariat's membership outreach and coordinates the EITI Board’s Outreach and Candidature Committee.
Mark has a professional background in diplomacy. Before joining the International Secretariat, he led the Energy and Climate Diplomacy Team in the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Nordic Baltic Network. He has managed conservation and communication projects for the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) Global Arctic Programme. Earlier in his career, Mark served as a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. State Department on assignment to American embassies in Kazakhstan, Russia, the United Kingdom and Eritrea.
Mark is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. In 2023, he earned a Master of Sustainability degree from Harvard University where he previously completed Graduate Certificates in Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Ecosystems, and in Corporate Sustainability and Innovation. Mark holds a professional qualification as a Graduate Gemologist from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), and he enjoys technical evaluation of diamonds and coloured gemstones.
Extractives governance and the energy transition agenda
The new edition of the EITI Standard launched in June 2023 provides tools to manage risks of the energy transition, combat corruption, improve revenue management and reporting on gender, environmental and social issues. This presentation will present highlights of these recent developments and explain how European countries use the EITI platform and data disclosures to inform public debate about the role of the extractives sector in the energy transition.