Bob Mark

My family and I are long-time residents in the South-West and have known and loved the Coast Path for close on 35 years. I have been a member of the Association since 2004. I was co-opted as a Trustee in 2017 and served last year on the Path Committee, Finance Committee, and as Chair. My expertise is in policy, business strategy, management, and coastal hydrography & morphology. 

After a BSc in Geology and Physical Geography, I trained as a Royal Navy Hydrographic Surveyor in 1980 and spent the first 17 years of my career as a field surveyor, commanding three Hydrographic ships. I have been responsible for coastal survey projects in the South-West and overseas. Moving to Whitehall, I became responsible for coordinating UK civil, military, and Antarctic hydrographic policy.  An MSc degree in management at London Business School followed, and then several years of business management and strategy work with government agencies and trading funds. Notably, the Hydrographic Office, Met Office and the research agencies. I was the Director of Corporate Strategy for the Defence Logistics Organisation for three years, designing the national post-cold war transformation of defence ship, aircraft, and vehicle repair facilities. I retired from the Navy in 2007 to join a global management consultancy. Running projects in business strategy, project management, organisation design, logistics, and enterprise resource planning IT Implementation. I have also served as a non-exec on the National Trust (NT) Wessex Region Committee 2007-10, the NT SW Region Advisory Board 2010-17, the Castle Drogo Project Board 2015-20, and the NT National Council 2016-2019. I retired as a Senior Executive Advisor for PWC Strategy& in 2020.