About

I've spent more than 20 years on one problem.

How do you keep a large body of knowledge accurate, current and usable, for every person and every system that depends on it?

It's an unglamorous question. It's also the one that decides whether your support team gives the right answer, whether your new hires learn what's true, and whether the AI you just bought is an asset or a liability.

Most people who understand knowledge can't build the systems. Most people who can build them don't understand how anyone learns. I've done both, on a loop, since 1998.

The pattern

Inside, then outside, then inside again.

I go into a company and build the function that doesn't exist yet. I learn where the real problem lives, which is never where the org chart says. Then I go out and solve it for other people, which teaches me what's universal and what was just that company. Then I go back in.

Microsoft. Fortive. REEF Technology. DoubleVerify. Replit. And my own practice in between, since 2000.

It isn't a tidy career path, but it produced something more useful than one: I've seen the same knowledge problem in a dozen companies, from both sides of the table. Career consultants have never had to run the function. Corporate lifers have never had to sell the work. I recognize your situation before you finish describing it, and I know which parts of it are actually unique to you.

The through-line

Early to every wave of this.

Digital learning, before it was a category

Built Microsoft Virtual Academy when online learning at scale was still an argument people had, not a thing people did.

Micro-learning, before it had a name

Short-form, in-the-flow-of-work learning, back when the industry still believed in the two-day course.

Machine learning in content ops, 2018

An ML translation pipeline at Fortive that cut localization costs 5–20x, years before anyone called this AI.

AI-native knowledge, now

Built the Learning & Knowledge function at Replit, and still ship production applications with AI tooling myself.

The pattern matters more than any single item on it. I've been here before, four times, and each time the people who moved early got the decade.

What I believe

Learning isn't a department. It's a culture.

If I've done my job well, the experience is designed so seamlessly you'd never know I was there. Nobody attends a meeting about it. Things just work, and people know things they didn't know last month.

The question I keep coming back to is how we use AI as a creative collaborator rather than a shortcut, and how we genuinely develop people instead of just training them. Those aren't rhetorical. They're the problems I wake up wanting to work on.

Credentials

The formal part.

Recognition

Bill Gates Training Visionary Award. Forbes contributor on learning technology and AI. LinkedIn Learning author.

Education

MBA, University of Washington. MS Instructional Technology & Interactive Design, CSU Chico. BA Media, Cal Poly Humboldt.

Teaching and advising

Longtime advisor to Colorado State University Global. Adjunct faculty, UCSB. K–12 teaching credential, San Francisco State.

Outside the work

Five albums of original music, and a long-running habit of building things nobody asked me to build. Based in the Bay Area.

What people say

From the people who worked for me, managed me, and hired me.

The best, most innovative, solutions-driven L&D leader I have worked with. He stepped in where we had a very basic program and in no time put together a robust L&D strategy encompassing content, learning path and technology. Plus he assembled a team of talent from various groups, created cohesion, motivation and purpose. The business leader couldn't stop praising him.

Valérie DeromeFounder & CEO, zscala · ex-Apple, ex-Medtronic
Managed Mark directly at REEF

Such a "can do" attitude that it is hard not to raise the bar on your own work. Mark is very scrappy and can get done what does not seem achievable. He has been a great teacher, coach and mentor. I would not be where I am today without his guidance and support.

Kelsey HukeeProgram Manager, L&D at PitchBook
Worked with Mark on the same team

A man with vision and many dreams for the learning industry. He marries creative vision with business goals and concrete innovative action to translate the vision into reality. He thinks extremely fast and is adept at building and managing high performance teams that keep pace.

Krishna Kumar BhardwajManaging Director, Vidyatech
Mark was his client

Deeply impressed by his expertise in Leadership and Development. Watching him navigate and build within a chaotic and large global organization was an unparalleled experience. His ability to quickly assemble his team and develop comprehensive programs was truly remarkable.

Elizabeth GonzalezHR Consultant
Worked with Mark at REEF

He brings the technical component to the table, but adds his own perspective to the subject matter while constantly thinking about the end user. Mark is a good listener and a problem solver.

Shinder DhillonVP, People Experience, Oncology at Pfizer
Was senior to Mark

A savvy, intelligent and discerning learning professional. He is consistently up to the minute on the latest trends in learning and consumer and generational behavior. His ability to communicate his wealth of information sets him apart from his peers.

Becky Takeda-Tinker, Ph.D.Transformational Leader, Strategic Vision & Innovative Operations

Let's talk about your knowledge.

Thirty minutes. Tell me what's breaking, and I'll tell you whether I can help or who else should.

Book a 30-minute call See the work