Mark has spent his entire career in communications and has worked in Indonesia since 1992. Mostly involved in strategic communications, stakeholder engagement and reputation management, Mark helps companies and organizations tell their stories. Mark has been elected three times to the Board of Governors of AmCham. He is a trained barista (who sometimes pulls shots at Rul’s Coffee Gallery), a former climber of volcanos, and now an avid road cyclist around the capital and the Indonesian archipelago, which he first visited in 1985 while traveling around the world.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses to compliment each other as a couple.
- Travel to open up yourself to get exposed to opportunities
- Digital revolution is a game changer and leadership in organizations
“If you don’t know how to tell your story…why what you are doing are important…then you will struggle with your company.”
Mark is a graduate of Haverford, the oldest Quaker college in the US, with a BA in Political Science, and of the International School of Geneva, where his basketball team won the Swiss National Championship. In addition to Bahasa Indonesia, he also speaks French and German and a smattering of other languages from three decades in Asia.
Some of his signature projects include an IPO on the NYSE, the re-organization of Pertamina’s corporate communications, the world’s first @america public diplomacy center, the BalinaleX film industry forum, and the initial planning for the Indonesia Pavilions at the Astana World Expo in Kazakhstan and the Expo 2020 Dubai. Mark has also mentored digital start-ups in Indonesia for Plug and Play and other accelerator programs (including BCA and BEKRAF, the government body overseeing the creative economy) and provided communications coaching to KEMLU and private companies.
Wisdoms Takeaway
- Communications are important in every aspect of your life to be successful.
- Compartmentalization, know when to disconnect when at home.
- Travel and understand other cultures to open yourself to other opportunities.