Mark Anthony Pack (born 27 July 1970) is a British politician who has served as the president of the Liberal Democrats since 1 January 2020. After the party's leader, Jo Swinson, lost her seat in the 2019 December election, Pack served as acting leader alongside Ed Davey from 1 January 2020 to 27 August 2020, when Davey was elected as leader.

Mark Pack
Pack in 2012
President of the Liberal Democrats
Assumed office
1 January 2020
LeaderEd Davey & himself (acting)
Ed Davey
Preceded bySal Brinton
Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Acting
1 January 2020 – 27 August 2020
Serving with Ed Davey
DeputyEd Davey
Preceded byEd Davey & Sal Brinton (acting)
Succeeded byEd Davey
Personal details
Born
Mark Anthony Pack

(1970-07-27) 27 July 1970 (age 54)
CitizenshipBritish
Political partyLiberal Democrats
Alma materUniversity of York
Websitewww.markpack.org.uk

Education

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Pack read History and Economics at the University of York from 1988 to 1991. He then undertook a PhD in history, studying nineteenth-century elections, initially at the University of Exeter, before transferring back to the University of York to complete it, in 1994.

Career

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Pack worked as an IT administrator, before working for the Liberal Democrats from 2000 to 2009. He then worked in communications consultancy for MHP Communications, and then Teneo (at the time under the Blue Rubicon brand), from 2009 to 2019.[1][2]

Pack was on the editorial board for the Journal of Liberal History. He was a visiting lecturer at City University.[3]

While working for the Liberal Democrats, Pack was Head of Innovations, running the party's 2001 and 2005 Internet general election campaigns.[4] He was the Campaign Manager for the Hornsey & Wood Green constituency from 1998 to 2005.[5][6] Pack is a long-time Liberal Democrat blogger. He was co-editor of the blog Liberal Democrat Voice until 2013.[7] Since 2011, he has edited Liberal Democrat Newswire, his monthly email newsletter about the party.[8]

Pack stood to be the president of the Liberal Democrats in 2019, with his candidacy supported by MPs Layla Moran[9] and Tom Brake, and MEP Catherine Bearder among others.[10] The only other candidate was MP Christine Jardine. Pack was elected by 14,381 (58.6%) to 10,164 votes (41.4%)[11] and began his term on 1 January 2020. As Jo Swinson, previously the leader of the party, had lost her seat in the December general election, the deputy leader Ed Davey and the party president acted as co-leaders until a new permanent leader could be elected. Pack thus assumed the acting co-leader role on starting his presidential term on 1 January 2020.[12]

Pack ranked 5 out of 50 on the Top 50 Influential Lib Dems of 2020 list.[13]

Bibliography

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Books

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  • 101 Ways To Win An Election, with Edward Maxfield (2012)[14][15][16]
  • Bad News: What the Headlines Don't Tell Us (2020)[17][18]

Journal articles

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  • With Darren Lilleker and Nigel Jackson, "Political Parties and Web 2.0: The Liberal Democrat Perspective", Politics, Volume 30(2), 2010, p. 105-112. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9256.2010.01373.x
  • "Obama: The marketing lessons", Journal of Direct, Data and Marketing Practice, Volume 12(1), 2010, p. 2-9. doi:10.1057/dddmp.2010.17
  • "The Victory Lab: Full of secrets, but can they swing an election?", Journal of Direct, Data and Marketing Practice, Volume 14(4), 2013, p. 3490353. doi:10.1057/dddmp.2013.17

References

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  1. ^ Owens, John. "MHP appoints Eamonn Carey to head up digital as Mark Pack heads to Blue Rubicon". www.prweek.com. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  2. ^ Harrington, John. "Goodbye, Blue Rubicon: Teneo removes all sub-branding across global business". www.prweek.com. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  3. ^ "Dr Mark Pack | HuffPost". www.huffingtonpost.co.uk. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Writers". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  5. ^ "Dr. Mark Pack: biography". Mark Pack. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  6. ^ "Top 50 most influential Lib Dems 2017". Archived from the original on 16 September 2017.
  7. ^ "You jeopardise future of the party, Lib Dems tell Nick Clegg; Grassroot activists vent their anger over threat to civil liberties posed by 'Big Brother' proposals", by Andrew Grice, The Independent, 7 April 2012. p. 6
  8. ^ "Mark Pack". The Guardian.
  9. ^ ""He would be absolutely brilliant" - why Layla Moran is backing Mark Pack". 22 October 2019 – via www.markpack.org.uk.
  10. ^ "What do Tom Brake and Catherine Bearder have in common?". Mark Pack. 31 October 2019.
  11. ^ "Thank you!". Mark Pack. 14 December 2019.
  12. ^ "Evening Call: What's on the news agenda for 2020?". www.newstatesman.com. 2 January 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  13. ^ "2020". 18 November 2020.
  14. ^ "Book Review: 101 Ways to Win an Election by Mark Pack and Edward Maxfield". 2 November 2012.
  15. ^ "101 Ways to Win An Election". www.bitebackpublishing.com.
  16. ^ "Review: 101 Ways To Win An Election". Politics.co.uk. 23 July 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  17. ^ "Bad News : What the Headlines Don't Tell Us". Mark Pack. 23 December 2019.
  18. ^ Withers, Matt (28 March 2020). "Pack leader: The lowdown on the Liberal Democrats' low-key boss". The New European. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
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Party political offices
Preceded by President of the Liberal Democrats
2020–present
Incumbent