Principal of a successful management consulting practice with a strong reputation for successful development and execution of business strategy together with business transformation.

Cross River Rail is a new 10.2-kilometre rail line, which includes 5.9 kilometres of twin tunnels under the Brisbane River and the CBD. It is deploying European Train Control Level 2 (ETCS L2) & Traffic Management Systems (TMS) capability as foundational elements.Mark is leading the transition to operations program across all Queensland Rail operations and maintenance functions for the deployment of ETCS L0, ETCS L2 with TMS and then Electronic Train Graph (ETG) and Automatic Route Setting (ARS) functionality over the entire suburban rail network.

The Digital Systems Program within Transport for NSW (TfNSW) is replacing the core signalling, train control and traffic management technology on the Sydney suburban rail network with European Train Control Level 2 (ETCS L2) & Traffic Management Systems (TMS). Mark led the design of the Digital Systems Program’s transformation strategy, competency & learning approach and the development of the extensive and detailed transformation program for TfNSW, Sydney Trains, NSW TrainLink and the suppliers. Mark understands the European journey with ETCS as he spent considerable time in Europe with senior representatives responsible for the implementation of ETCS and CBTC programs across Europe to understand lessons learned and identify the foundation elements for the ETCS transformation strategy and program in Sydney. Organisations represented were Govia Thameslink Railway, the Go-Ahead Group, LNER (London North Eastern Railway) and Network Rail in the UK, Amsterdam Metro and Ineco, Renfe and Adif in Spain.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is Australia’s largest Bank. Mark was engaged by the Group Executive of CBA’s Retail Bank to design & implement a high-profiled, new operational performance system for all Executives that included a stronger focus on improving customer outcomes & compliance with regulatory requirements. This management model spanned all aspects of operations and redesigned the reset how all capital investments would be prioritised and governed.

The delivery of a wide-ranging corporate and back-office transformation was one of Sydney Trains’ key corporate objectives. This successful program reported directly to the Chief Executive and delivered significant reductions in corporate costs and improvements in the functional delivery of corporate services.

The Division ensures that Sydney Trains is clear on where it wants to be, understands what success looks like and then invests in the right portfolio of capital and operating investments (circa $400M p.a.) to enable the achievement of business strategy. The team actively prioritises initiatives, manages and rebalances the capital portfolio to ensure that Sydney Trains fully utilises its annual capital funding and delivers the promised benefit profile. For the first time in many years, Sydney Trains fully delivered its capital portfolio in both 2013/14 and 2014/15 (30% delivery improvement).Improved clarity of strategy was then translated into solid investment proposals that secured an additional $750 million into Sydney Trains’ capital investment envelope over two years.

This was a new senior leadership role with a brief to align the organisation to a new strategy agenda, re-establish credibility in the corporate stakeholder relations function and cascade a new performance focus throughout the organisation. A new, Board-approved Shareholder Value Proposition was developed, and a new Strategic Plan was then developed in response. The Senior Leadership Team were then aligned with the strategy. Key business strategies were initiated in relation to monetising a significant in-situ coal portfolio and wholesale/retail vertical integration. Mark led the commercial negotiations with potential consortium partners on coal monetisation and potential mine acquisition transactions.Significant improvements in the corporate stakeholder function were developed and strong relationships across the Queensland Government were forged.

Principal of a successful management consulting practice with a strong reputation for successful strategy development, execution and management of change.Below are some of the engagements that Mark completed. Further details are available as required.

Immediately prior to joining CS Energy and in collaboration with the Energex CEO and CFO, Mark developed a new Customer Value Proposition for Energex and then translated it into a new, Board-approved business strategy that delivered customer price reductions, 10%-20% opex savings and progressed into a broader corporate downsizing.

The Managing Director engaged Mark to lead the implementation of a national supply chain improvement project for Silver Chef, an ASX listed national finance company that reduced their operating costs by over 30%. The project scope encompassed the selection and fit-out of a single 2,000 m2 warehouse and the logistics of transportation, identification and warehousing of over 2,500 commercial hospitality assets.

Mark managed the successful implementation of a suite of new systems for Silver Chef, an ASX listed national finance company. This implementation scope encompassed Technology One’s Finance One suite of modules and a front office Contract origination and management system..

Mark led a whole-of-business procurement project for Ergon Energy that implemented strategic sourcing and delivered savings of over $5 million per annum (over $30 million NPV). This was a multi-million dollar project that extended over sixteen months, involved multiple cross-functional teams from across Queensland.

Mark was a part of the leadership team of Ernst & Young Consulting for the Northern Region and was the largest contributor to Northern Region consulting revenues for three years running. Mark led one of EYC’s core Industry groups across Australia and New Zealand. Mark’s areas of specialisation were Strategy and Performance Improvement. A sample of consulting engagements is detailed below: • Ergon Energy – Retail Systems Strategy & Joint Venture development team• Queensland Transport – Performance Management• Education Queensland – Strategy for Offshore Education Program Delivery in China• Queensland Treasury Corporation – Corporate Governance Review for Board• Ports Corporation of Queensland – Process Improvement• Logan City Council – Activity Based ManagementIn 2001, Cap Gemini acquired Ernst & Young Consulting. This resulted in Mark taking on additional responsibilities in both the Sydney & Melbourne operations.

Universities have very diverse and significant business operations. Mark was a member of the University’s Senior Management Team and successfully managed QUT’s operating and capital resources during government funding cutbacks and presided over a 50% increase in non-government revenues.

Mark managed the University’s student load planning model. This model drove the QTAC offer and acceptance process and informed the University’s budget setting parameters.

Responsibilities included:- Development of the State Business Plan (strategic and operational plans);- Implementation of the Quality Management program across the State;- Budgeted for all facets of operations and determined resource requirements.