Key
interests and achievements
Mark’s
interests outside politics are his family and home. He is also a lapsed sailor
and dog walker.
Mark
has been a community councillor for Treuddyn, a former school governor (and
chair) of Ysgol Parc y Llan, and former voluntary board member of Venture
Housing Association.
He
is a Management Board Member of the Buddies Autism Club, Vice President of
North Wales Disability Resources Centre, a Patron of the British Association of
Social Workers, an Ambassador for Clwyd Girl Guides, Vice President of North
Wales Play, Vice Patron of RORO sailing project, a Member of Glyndŵr
University Court, a Member of North Wales Wildlife Trust, a Patron – Centre of
Sign-Sight-Sound, President of the Centre for Cultural Engagement, Vice
President of the Boys and Girls Clubs for Wales, Trustee of Families Need
Fathers Both Parents Matter Cymru, a Patron of Flintshire Disability Forum, and
a Patron of Policy Forum for Wales. Mark was also the founder of CHANT Cymru
(Community Hospitals Acting Nationally Together) in the second Assembly.
Personal
history
Mark
lives in Flintshire with his wife. They have six children and a grandchild. A
politics graduate of Newcastle University, Mark qualified as an Associate of
the Chartered Institute of Bankers. He was previously employed as a building
society area manager in north Wales.
Political
history
Mark
was first elected to the National Assembly for Wales in 2003, before being
re-elected in 2007, 2011 and 2016. In the Second and Third Assemblies he was
the Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister in a range of areas, including Finance,
Education, Social Justice, Equality and Housing, as well as being the member of
a number of Assembly committees and chairing the Assembly’s Legislation
Committee No. 5. He also chaired Cross-Party Groups on Fuel Poverty,
Neurosciences, and Funerals and Bereavement. In the Fourth Assembly he was the
Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Communities, Housing, Policing and North
Wales, as well as sitting on the Assembly’s Communities, Equality and Local
Government Committee and the Assembly’s Standards Committee. He has also
chaired Cross-Party Groups on Autism, Neurological Conditions, Fuel Poverty,
Hospices and Palliative Care, and Funerals and Bereavement, and Co-chaired the
Cross-Party Group on Disability.
In
the Fifth Senedd he was the Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Communities,
Europe and North Wales, then the Shadow Minister for Local Government and
Housing and finally the Shadow Minister for Finance and Chief Whip. He also
Chaired Cross-Party Groups on Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency, Autism, Disability, Neurological Conditions, and
Funerals and Bereavement.
