Mark Hepworth

Mark is a multidisciplinary economist and entrepreneur whose international career spans academia, public policy and business consultancy. As co-Founder of The Good Economy, he leads the firm’s Place-Based Impact Investing (PBII) work which includes research and policy thinking off the back of the ground breaking white paper Scaling Up Institutional Investment for Place-Based Impact, developed with the Impact Investing Institute (III) and Pensions for Purpose. Mark also led the creation of PBII Labs, TGE’s PBII strategy consultancy offering, and PBII Collaborations which includes PBII R&D and Knowledge Bank, and the PBII Network, a pioneering collaboration between institutional investors and local authorities, co-hosted by TGE, the Institute for Economic Development and the III. The overarching objective of the Network is to create a trusted environment where local authorities and private investors can meet for knowledge sharing, mutual learning and the development of innovative financing solutions to scale-up institutional investment as a force for good in helping places across the UK achieve local economic resilience, prosperity and sustainable development.

Mark has deep knowledge of the UK economic development landscape through his research at the Universities of Newcastle and London and policy consultancy at the Local Futures Group, which he co-founded in 1997 (now part of Grant Thornton). Known for his seminal work on the IT revolution and the knowledge economy, he has taught at UK and overseas universities, acted as an expert adviser to the UN Economic Council, the OECD and the European Commission, and undertaken strategy consultancy for IBM, Microsoft, BT and other corporates.

Prior to The Good Economy, Mark was a Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College London and Founding Director of Geoeconomics, a research and strategy consultancy which produced local economic strategies and impact assessments for infrastructure providers and private equity investors. As a consultant to Big Issue Invest, Mark co-created the social assessment methodologies underpinning the Threadneedle UK Social Bond Fund and Standard Life Investments’ UK Equity Impact Employment Opportunities Fund.

Mark has a degree in economics from the University of Warwick and a doctorate in economic geography from the University of Toronto.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhepworthinnovativeeconomics/
mark@thegoodeconomy.co.uk