Chairman 🇺🇸🇬🇧 | Special Advisor to Leaders

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Mark J. Finlay is a special advisor, a public speaker, co-host of the Diplomatique™ Global Round Table Series, and an expert in investor relations.  

With decades of multi-jurisdictional experience as a Chairman, senior executive, and public servant, he has developed Guiding Principles™ tools designed to help clients deliver their projects!  

Mark is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS) and a Member of the Association for Project Management (MAPM), boasting over 35 years of experience as a champion for cities and a passionate advocate for mixed-use development. As a Chairman he often challenges conventional thinking, encouraging leaders to innovate and advance new ideas.  

For a decade Mark was a Director of Scarborough Development Group plc, leading projects across the British Isles, as Managing Director of SDG Property Holdings, Managing Director UK & Ireland, and Director of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), operating various Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) and managing turnaround portfolios on behalf of SPVs, public bodies, banks, and institutional investors.

While at Scarborough, Mark led the hugely successful regeneration of the former Royal Naval Base Rosyth on the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh, helping to transform the previously high security and heavily contaminated site into an attractive multi-campus business park, home to financial services, fintech, business innovation, and now HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. 

The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, who would become UK Prime Minister, was a local MP for Rosyth and actively involved in the regeneration steering group. Through this association, Mark was recommended to Brown's Cabinet colleague the late Mo Mowlam, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, at the helm in negotiating the Good Friday Peace Agreement, who recommended Mark be appointed as a Commissioner of the Port of Belfast. This is turn has led to Mark advising Ports, public bodies, government agencies and development consortia about port and infrastructure development from Eastern Europe to North and South America.

Mark's notable involvement in peace and post-conflict transformation in Northern Ireland led to his delivering a memorable speech in West Palm Beach, where he aptly described Belfast as "once a city of two halves, now a city of seven quarters—and that's not bad Irish math!" This quote was later referenced by the Financial Times in an article discussing the 'peace dividend' and post-conflict investments in Belfast.  

Beyond his memorable lines, Mark has played a pivotal role in securing multi-million-pound investments in five of Belfast's Quarters—Cathedral Quarter, Linen Quarter, Market Quarter, Queen's Quarter, and Titanic Quarter—and has similarly advanced projects in multiple international cities.  

Mark is recognized as an authority in Latent Defect Insurance (LDI) in the United Kingdom and in global insurance and reinsurance markets. 

A latent defect is a hidden or concealed flaw that cannot be detected through reasonable observation or inspection. In the United Kingdom and several states in the USA, builders are required to provide a 10-year LDI policy to cover structural defects.  

In the spring of 2018, Mark was brought in to provide expert advice following the collapse of an international reinsurer and the subsequent bankruptcy of a Danish fronting carrier that had been a major provider of insurance for new homes in the UK.   

Mark actively participated in discussions with UK and Danish government officials and regulators during this critical period. He has a strong background in consumer advocacy, having authored The Consumer Code for New-Home Ownership in the UK. 

Mark has raised concerns about the significant shortfall in underwriting capacity available to support the UK Government's targets for new housing. With Deputy Prime Minister The Rt. Hon. Angela Rayner MP, who heads up the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), having mandated the need to develop an addition 1.2 million homes in the UK by 2029, Finlay points out that by his calculations, there is a £100 million shortfall of insurance capacity in the UK and, while the City of London is the epicenter of the global insurance markets, the country has shed capacity and too many barriers to market entry have been allowed to be built. 

He emphasizes, this lack of capacity stifles competition and inflates rates. Consequently, this adversely affects homeowners and puts small building contracting firms—often family-run businesses—at a disadvantage, undermining the vitality of the new homes market.  

Due to his expertise, Mark has been consulted by a unique industry group to consider chairing a Review of the Provision of Latent Defect Insurance (LDI) and Structural Warranties for New Homes in the United Kingdom. The Finlay Review would produce a Report and Recommendations that its is hoped would garner government support, as it the interests of UK homeowners at its heart.

In addition, Mark is currently serving as advisor and project director for a groundbreaking project: the development of America's first carbon-zero energy community. This innovative, rail-served project will host a variety of electricity and energy generators, interconnected by microgrid technology, with a commitment to developing energy independence, enhancing the grid, and contributing to the decarbonization of our nation.  

Well beyond comprehensive development oversight, Mark is also highly skilled in real estate structured finance, asset and portfolio management, and the delivery of facilities management (FM) services.