Professor Mark Brown is Ireland's first Chair in Digital Learning and Director of the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL). In 2019, he will Chair the ICDE World Conference on Online Learning which takes place in November. Prior to taking up this position at the start of 2014, Mark was Director of the National Centre for Teaching and Learning as well as Director of the Distance Education and Learning Futures Alliance (DELFA) at Massey University, New Zealand. Additionally, Mark had responsibility for oversight of the Central Hub of Ako Aotearoa - National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.

Over the last decade, Mark has played key leadership roles in the implementation of several major university-wide digital learning and teaching initiatives, including the selection and enterprise-wide deployment of a new LMS/VLE, the original design and development of the Mahara e-portfolio platform, a major implementation of a rich media learning system [Mediasite], and the first New Zealand university-wide implementation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform [Open2Study]. At Dublin City University (DCU) Mark has managed the pilot of the Moodle-based Academy MOOC platform and had strategic oversight of the implementation of FutureLearn.

Mark was previously Chair (2014-2018) of the Innovation in Teaching and Learning Steering Committee for the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) and is an EDEN Fellow as well as member of the Executive Committee of European Distance and e-Learning Network (EDEN). He also serves on the Supervisory Board of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) and co-leads the Empower Online Learning Leadership Academy (EOLLA) for new and emerging institutional leaders in European universities. This leadership programme draws on Mark's contribution over several yeras as a faculty member to the US-based Online Learning Consortium's (OLC) Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL).

Mark is a member of the Advisory Board for the Online Learning Consortium's Research Center for Digital Learning and Leadership and in 2017 was appointed an Ambassador for the Global Advocacy of Open Educational Resources (OER) on behalf of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE). In 2017, the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL) also recognised Mark as a world leader in Open, Online and Distance Learning.

In 2016, Mark was appointed as a representative of the Irish Universities Association on the Board of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. He resigned from this role in April 2018. Additionally, Mark has in the past worked closely with Epigeum, a subsidiary of Oxford University Press, in the development of online professional development programmes for university staff and was Lead Advisor for a course in the area of Blended Learning. He is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) for DCU's contribution to the EU funded EMBED project, which is being led by EADTU to develop and pilot a European Maturity Model for Blended Education. He has also contributed to the EU funded EFFECT project, which under the leadership of the European University Assoication (EUA) aims to develop a stronger European Forum for Enhanced Collaboration in Teaching.

Before taking up his current posiiton, Mark was President of the New Zealand Association for Open, Flexible and Distance Learning (DEANZ now FLANZ)). He was also Treasurer and an Executive Committee member of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ascilite). ASCILITE is the peak professional body for blended, online and digital learning in Australia and New Zealand. Mark continues to have strong links down under and in 2019 was elected to the Executive Committee of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (OLDAA) which publishes the Q1 journal Distance Education. Mark is a recipient of a  National Award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching and remains a member of the New Zealand Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence.