Biography

Rt Hon Lord Malloch-Brown KCMG

We are living through disruption. Not for the first time an old order is broken and the new has not emerged.

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About Mark

His biography is that of both restless and eternal student and seasoned statesman. Today, he approaches the world through a lens captured in the name of his start-up, The Unruly Corporation. The old rules, he believes, have broken down. The two biggest transgressors of the rule based order established in 1945 are two of its original architects, the United States  and Russia. As both revert to disruptive behaviours the ripples reach out to every corner of our modern world.

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Across new frontiers of conflict- from a scramble to control critical minerals and supply chains- to exploiting the vulnerabilities of the communications systems, energy grids and payment systems of modern economies through often asymmetric attacks that bypass traditional security set-ups, the world has entered uncertain and dangerous waters. From Indonesia to Kenya or Colombia authoritarians are on the march.

Some of it was foreseen in the pages of his earlier memoir-cum-manifesto, The Unfinished Global Revolution which warned that rising inequality in many countries would undermine the then strong push towards mainstream democracy at home and closer co-operation abroad.  The dramatic global backsliding over the last 15 years is something Mark chronicles in his substack and media commentary.

He is fascinated by the challenges of navigating their multiple intersecting crises whether it is the new turbulence in domestic politics because of illegal migration or demographic disruption. From domestic and service sector workers in South Africa to those trying to reach the British coast in overcrowded inflatables or a Spanish enclave in North Africa migrants have become the political hot button.

Without rights or protections they are a consequence of the economic geographic mismatch between opportunity and place of birth. The notably high population growth rates in Africa or  ageing, and in some cases  shrinking, populations in former economic high fliers such as Europe, Japan and now China are overturning the political table. 

This, together with a desperate search for innovation and economic growth across many regions, is upending  old political orders as traditional political parties struggle and fail to deliver.

Almost everywhere there is a pervasive crisis of legitimacy and trust. So even as our lives as consumers are often enhanced by access to revolutionary new products and services  our security as citizens seem to be falling away. Climate change for example is no longer somebody else’s problem. This summer two thirds of the UK was in a drought emergency. Mark sifts through those paradoxes.

In turn this makes global outcomes in security, trade and investment, geoeconomics and development less certain and less predictable than at any point in more than a century. As chronicler, adviser and analyst Mark is devoting himself to developing new tools, frameworks and models intended to offer a better grip on an uncertain future. In his work he wrestles with implications of a world where the old rules don't count anymore.

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A Global Life

A child of Cold War Britain, whose career has ridden the heights of post-1989 global hopes and aspirations- from working on privatisation in Moscow; engaging in post apartheid South Africa; or peacemaking the wartorn Balkans; to being at the centre of the democratic wave that swept the world in the 1990s, as international political consultant;  to a fast moving multilateral  career that culminated as number two to Kofi Annan, the United Nations most successful recent secretary-general - he has been privileged to be participant and spectator to the banner moments of recent history.

Across all of what he does there remains a determination to explore new ways of thinking about our world. His compass point has always been an insatiable curiosity about what comes next.

  • Global Leadership Across Business, Philanthropy & Int'l Affairs

    President of a start-up, The Unruly Corporation, that blends human Judgment and AI insight to expose and address client and global risks; incoming chair from 1 October of ODI Global, a leading Development and Global Affairs  think tank; a visiting professor of practice at the LSE; a visiting fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and a fellow in residence at Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies; on the boards of the International Crisis Group, BRAC, and the United Nations Foundation.

    Previously President of The Open Society Foundations (OSF), the world’s largest international funder of human rights and justice established by George Soros. Responsible for a major restructuring of the organisation and a reset of its priorities amidst a period of global crisis for human rights work.

  • A series of executive, advisory and board roles in the private sector including leading the EMEA region for FTI consulting; board membership at Investec, an international bank, Seplat a Nigerian energy company; SGO, a technology and election services company; Kerogen an energy private equity investor and Vitol, an energy trader and SwissRe. He also was a senior adviser to Eurasia Group, the leading geopolitical risk consultancy.

    Chaired  the International Crisis Group, the Royal Africa Society and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, CIFF; co-chaired the UN Foundation; on the board of Save the Children International and OSF. Chaired the Business Commission for Sustainable Development that made the critical commercial case for business investment in climate; a visiting fellow of practice at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University.

  • UK Minister for Africa, Asia and UN 2007-9; Administrator of the UN Development Programme 1999-2005; Chef du Cabinet  to the UN Secretary-General 2005-6 and  Deputy UN Secretary-General 2006. Led establishment of the Millenium Development Goals; drove major reform programmes across the UN system and worked to maximise the organisation’s impact across development, human rights and peace and security.

  • Vice-President for External and UN Affairs at the World Bank(1994-9); deeply involved in World Bank policy and organisational reform.

    Co-founder of the International Crisis group; Partner  and international lead at the Sawyer Miller Group 1986-94, an international political consultancy that advised candidates and government on campaigns and political strategy. Worked with candidates from the Philippines to the former Soviet Union and Latin America in often the first open elections as well as with corporate clients such as American Airlines.

  • Before becoming a political consultant had two spells at the Economist, starting in 1977 writing first on politics and later on Development. This was interspersed with 4 years of work across the world’s refugee crises for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.