Mark started his IT career way back in 1991 at SPA Microsystems, developing marketing databases using a fourth-generation programming language called DataFlex. SPA built and managed marketing databases inhouse and would typically be given files of marketing data, either directly from the clients or from third parties, which would be deduplicated and cleansed before importing into client databases. This data would then be used to run analysis and marketing activities such as producing reports for the clients, running telesales campaigns, printing and fulfilling mailshots, etc.

Mark was SPA Microsystems third employee and it's first developer (all previous development had been done by the founder of the company), and as the company grew Mark got to lead a development team of around 8 developers at its peak.

Mark was almost entirely self taught. His initial training involved being given a set of DataFlex manuals and told to go away and read them. This he did with ethusiasm and he quickly taught himeslef to develop applications using DataFlex. Such was his dedication to the cause he was known to take the manuals on holiday and would read them by the pool (whilst sipping on exotic cocktails).

SPA was focused on long term relationships with it's clients, and as a result Mark worked with a number of clients over many years such as Kimberley-Clark, Goring Kerr and ICI Paints. For many years ICI Paints (owner of the Dulux brand) was Mark's main focus where he almost single handedly built a system that started out as a simple marketing database, but gradually grew over a 5 year period into an application which, in addition to operating as a marketing database, also managed sales opportunities and provided call centre functionality.

Eventually the ICI Paints application outgrew its technology of the time (DataFlex on a Btrieve database), at which point SPA was tasked with finding a new technology to replace the existing solution.

At the time (towards the end of 1997) Siebel was looking to establish a foothold in Europe following a rapid and successful expansion in the US. ICI Paints agreed to be one of, if not "the", first Siebel client in Europe. And given SPA Microsystems' and Marks' successful relationship with ICI Paints they were asked to implement Siebel as a replacement for the ageing DataFlex solution.

And so began Marks 25+ year career in Siebel. In January 1998 Mark went on the Siebel bootcamp in San Mateo (as at the time Siebel had yet to establish any training facilities in Europe) before starting to implement version 3.1 of Siebel. It wasn't long before Siebel 98 (version 4) was released and so ICI Paints upgraded to this latest version as soon as it was released.

After 8 years at SPA Microsystems Mark moved into consulting, working for a new consultancy called Pointer Consulting that was setup by a couple of senior ex-employees of ICI Paints. Pointer grew rapidly, mostly on the success of Siebel and rapid expansion of the CRM market at the time, and it was eventually bought out by American based consultancy/systems integrator Extraprise in 2000.

Mark continued to work on the ICI Paints implementation until the end of 1999, effectively being the primary developer of the system over an 8 year period. Pointer Consulting developed a close relationship with Siebel and in the early days of Siebel's entry into Europe (1998/1999) Mark worked closely with them on a few bids, preparing proof of concepts to assist the Siebel sales representatives in their pitches.

During Mark's time at Extraprise he worked on a number of projects throughout the UK and Netherlands, and was consistently their most utilised consultant. He continued to work for Extraprise until joining the contract market in April 2003. During his time as a Siebel contractor Mark worked on a large number of projects and has always prided himself on his professionalism and providing quality solutions. This is reflected in the good relationships he has had on all the projects he as worked on, with clients and team members alike, and is evident in being asked back at clients such as BBC TV Licencing, Deloitte and Logica, and not to mention the numerous Siebel consultants with whom he has crossed paths with on many an occasion.

Mark continued contracting in Siebel until the beginning of 2021 when he joined Spinnaker Support as a Senior Technical Solutions Architect where he now spends his time providing third party support on Siebel implementations to many clients around the globe.