Mark took on the role of National Manager for Mosquito Consulting Services (NZ) at the beginning of July 2010. MCS are a company that specialise in providing services relating to mosquitoes and other biting insects. MCS has operated in Australia and some other parts of the South Pacific since 2000, the New Zealand branch of MCS was recently formed following the successful bid for the National Saltmarsh Mosquito Surveillance Programme work, for MAFBNZ.

Prior to his current position Mark had been part of the SMS-New Zealand BioSecure (NZB) team since 2000, predominantly as an entomologist but also within the Southern Saltmarsh Mosquito Eradication, and National Saltmarsh Mosquito Surveillance Programmes. Prior to that he worked in the Healthcare Hawke’s Bay Public Health Unit, following his emigration from Scotland in 1999.

His qualifications include a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Zoology, more specifically marine biology. Since being with SMS-NZB, he has completed training courses in biosecurity, GIS, leadership training, project management as well as one-on-one training with an Australian expert in mosquito taxonomy.

He has spent time overseas working with the North Queensland Tropical Public Health Unit Dengue Action Response Team during the 2003 dengue outbreak and with Darryl McGinn (MCS) gathering information for mosquito health impact assessments. He was one of the instructing entomologists for the annual National Border Health Training Course for Authorised Officers and the Biosecurity Workshop for Authorised Officers run for the Ministry of Health from 2000 to 2013. He has also developed and conducted Medical Entomology training courses for the RNZAF these have also been used by the NZ Army. More recently Mark has been involved in assessing the effectiveness of several novel insect repellents and new repellent fabrics both in the lab and field, in NZ and overseas.

Mark has been author and co-author of several journal articles and many reports for the Ministry of Health (NZ). He is a member of the Mosquito Control Association of Australia and the American Mosquito Control Association.