Mark Palmer

As the former Marketing Director of Pret A Manger and Green & Black's organic chocolate, Mark Palmer is one of the UK’s most popular and influential business speakers.

Mark’s career in marketing began at United Biscuits, where he worked on promoting popular snack brands including McCoy’s and Hula Hoops. Moving on to Burger King, where he spent four years as marketing manager, Mark moved to Green & Black’s in 2001 where his role as Marketing Director took sales from £4m to £40m, and turned the brand from niche organic to premium everyday chocolate.

As a result of a complete repositioning exercise instigated by Mark, Green & Black’s became the fastest growing chocolate brand in the UK, and was acquired by Cadbury Schweppes. Voted the UK’s coolest food brand by Superbrands for five successive years, Green & Black’s was also nominated by Sainsbury’s customers as their favourite brand of the noughties. Mark was voted marketer of the year by the Marketing Society for his work on Green & Black’s in 2006, and was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix Gold for Marketing Excellence.

In 2012, Mark became Marketing Director of Pret A Manger, overseeing the brand’s development globally. Pret now has 500 shops worldwide and sales of £900m. In 2016 Pret was voted brand of the year by the UK marketing industry, not least for its pioneering Veggie Pret initiative.

In 2017, Mark transitioned to a part time board advisory role at Pret and now combines this role with a range of other activities. He is the co-founder of soft drinks company Cawston Press, co-founder of LA Brewery Kombucha and Chairman of Union Hand Roasted coffee.