Mark Clarke's interest in hill walking started when he was at school and took part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. As part of this and other school activities, he made several visits to Snowdonia, culminating in his Gold Award expedition over four days and fifty miles - following in the footsteps of his two brothers and in the process pulling off the perhaps unusual feat of three brothers each achieving the Gold Award. The mountain skills and disciplines which he had learnt in Snowdonia sat idle for many years subsequently, but happily stood him in good stead on his High Point project - he even used the very same compass which he had used in Snowdonia some forty years earlier. He has a MA from Oxford University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Until 2008 his career was in the financial services and management consultancy sectors and in Whitehall. Since then, he has taken up a variety of part time non-executive roles in business and not for profit organisations. Mark lives in London with his wife of over thirty years, Alex, and has three children, all of whom are now in their twenties.