Mark Armitage holds a degree in Russian Studies from Leeds University, an MBA from Bradford University School of Management and has an MSc in Management Research also from Bradford University School of Management.Mark has had 30 years international management experience working in over 70 countries for De La Rue Plc and a US Corporate. He operated extensively in Central and Eastern Europe, the Former Soviet Union, Middle East, Africa, South Asia and Western Europe. He has worked at ministerial level within the public sector and at senior management levels within the commercial and retail banking sectors. His last line management position within De La Rue was as Regional Managing Director Cash Systems Division with responsibility for Africa, Middle East and South Asia where he had full P and L responsibility for three operating companies based in South Africa, India and UK. His corporate experience also includes business planning and implementation as Commercial Director of a start-up company supplying business-to-business information communication technology solutions. He has worked as a Managing Consultant in the Public Sector within a medium-sized Management Consultancy firm, and was part of the senior management team responsible for business development within Europe, Middle East and Africa for a high-technology start-up business within NCR Corporation.He set up a management consultancy, International Strategy Solutions Limited in 2003, and the business subsequently worked with over 400 private and public sector organisations across multiple industry sectors to provide international business planning, business development and marketing solutions; delivering support for tactical international issues requiring immediate resolution to high level, longer-term international strategic planning for senior managers.More recently he worked at the UK Government's Department for International Trade (now the Department for Business and Trade) as a Head of International Trade Team for four years followed by two years as Secretary General (CEO) of the Institute of Logistics and Transport International (a UK-registered international charity with 30,000 professional members) which delivers education courses to 145 accredited training providers based in over 40 countries.