Mark has been involved on the technical side of the Airline Industry for over 40 years. His education and technical skills were put into motion after graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering at the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota.
He began his professional career with Republic Airlines as a Systems Engineer and then has gone on to hold several technical management positions within the Maintenance side of the Airline including overall Reliability, Powerplant Engineering and Chief Engineer at Northwest Airlines.

Finding the best performance in a highly complex organization is one of Mark’s key interests. Pushing the envelope for Safety has been his main interest since 2005 when he has held safety leadership roles at major U.S. airlines, regional airlines and the Washington DC based Airlines for America. Mark has been with the Flight Safety Foundation for the past 10 years working with various projects to provide advice to the world’s efforts on building safety intelligence that helps redefine what’s possible through risk management. He has also been involved with the forming content for the Foundation's seminars and conferences through its advisory committees.