Leadership

After college, Mark joined the workforce as a programmer, a role he thrived in, as he associated programming to "solving puzzles", a cherished family activity while growing up. After working in textile and local government verticals, Mark entered the Financial Services sector during the merger and acquisition years (NCNB, NationsBank, Bank of America), and was promoted to Senior Vice President, leading an internal Internet consulting organization (WebCo).

In 2000, Mark was approached by a group of investors to form and lead a startup Internet consulting company with a one million dollar investment. As CEO of ettain.com, the company grew, merged, and eventually was acquired (Expiris.com). This was the first of a number of business ventures Mark would go on to form.

Throughout his career, Mark has held titles of CEO, President, Senior Vice President, Executive Director at major financial services and energy companies (Wells Fargo, TIAA, Duke Energy), leading large delivery organizations, managing multi-million dollar annual investments (additional details on LinkedIn).

Passionate about lifelong learning, Mark observes trends and invests in research to capitalize on those trends to help businesses be successful. "I strongly believe that AI will be as much or more impactful to businesses than the Internet" - Mark W. Long