Biography

Mark Essex is an economist with 10 years' experience. He managed the first Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative validations in Africa (Liberia) and Europe (Norway). He has undertaken numerous technical studies that assess the macroeconomic and social impacts of natural resource extraction in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. Within OPM, he has recently finished re-writing a toolkit explaining how to measure the economic and social impacts of large-scale natural resource investments for the International Council on Mining and Metals. In addition to mining, Mark has worked on a macroeconomic impact assessment of a proposed LNG investment in East Africa and, prior to joining OPM, he worked as a policy advisor (for AusAID) on a large project that aimed to commercialise natural gas assets in Papua New Guinea. Mark has broad macroeconomic, extractive industries, public financial management and budgeting experience gained as an ODI Fellow in the Department of Treasury, Papua New Guinea.