Mark was born and raised on Auckland's North Shore, a sixth generation New Zealander whose ancestors arrived in New Zealand from County Mayo, Ireland in 1860. He was educated at Rosmini College and later completed an executive education programme at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He began his working life as a shepherd on Weiti Station in the Rodney District.

In 1989 Mark joined the New Zealand Police and enjoyed a successful 14 year career. During his police career he was involved in an incident where both he and his police dog Czar were stabbed with a samurai sword while preventing a disturbed and dangerous offender from entering a primary school. Czar fully recovered from his injuries but Mark never regained the full use of his right arm and he retired from the police in 2002.

In 2003 Mark moved overseas and launched an international business career which included the startup of his own company specialising in hostage rescue, supply chain security and risk management. Mark worked closely with the World Economic Forum to establish Logistic Emergency Response Teams that provided humanitarian support in countries hit by natural disasters, such as the Philippines, Pakistan and Haiti, to name a few.  Mark was also a member of the executive management team of several global companies, including one of the biggest logistics companies in the world.

In 2008 Mark began leveraging his business network and knowledge in emerging markets to begin assisting New Zealand entrepreneurs and businesses to introduce their services and products into new markets.

Mark is passionate about generating growth in both our tradable sector and local economy. He supports the National Government’s principals of careful economic management and sensible decisions.  Mark believes that continued investment in our infrastructure is critical to get our people and products moving safely and more efficiently.

Safe neighbourhoods are a priority for Mark, and he strongly backs law and order policies that keep our families and communities secure, and ensure the rights of victims are protected.

As a parent, Mark appreciates the importance of a good education; he supports NZ education standards being lifted and getting good information to all parents.

Mark was raised in a family where the value of public service and making a contribution to the community we live in was always considered a priority.  Mark’s father Larry Mitchell has been very active in Rodney initiatives for many years, and his Grandfather, Frank Gill, was the East Coast Bays MP, National Party Cabinet Minister and New Zealand’s Ambassador to the United States.

Mark is married to Peggy Bourne, widow of New Zealand rallying legend 'Possum' Bourne and their blended family live in Orewa.

Top 5 Issues

1. Building a stronger economy
   
   • Balance the books sooner.
   • Borrow less so we can have lower interest rates for longer.
   • Keep personal taxes lower to encourage hard work.
   • Make New Zealand more competitive so our exporters can sell more overseas and create more real jobs.
   • Encourage savings and investments.
   • Use the mixed-Ownership model to fund infrastructure to help us grow faster.
   • Invest in skills training and tertiary education that gets results.
2. Building world-class infrastructure
   
   • Ultra-fast broadband for greater innovation.
   • More, and better, roads to ease congestion.
   • Investing in more rail and public transport.
3. Building a safer New Zealand
   
   • Staying strong on crime – tougher sentencing, stronger bail laws, and a focus on victims.
   • Keep working to lower the crime rate further so our families are safer.
   • Making our roads safer, so we can keep the road toll lower.
4. Rebuilding Christchurch
   
   • $5.5 billion recovery fund
   • Re-establishing essential infrastructure
   • More construction-related training
5. Building better public services
   
   • Better Schools – identifying and helping children falling behind, school reports in plain English.
   • World-class healthcare –more doctors and nurses, more operations, shorter waiting times.
   • Effective welfare- more people back into work, more incentives to work, payment cards for teens on benefits.

Personal Profile