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 Joanne Kate Swinson (born 5 February 1980) is a former British Liberal Democrat politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 22 July to 13 December 2019. She was the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position, as well a ...

, lost her seat in the 2019 December election, Pack served as acting leader alongside

Ed Davey Sir Edward Jonathan Davey (born 25 December 1965) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 t ...

from 1 January 2020 to 27 August 2020, when Davey was elected as leader.

Career

Pack read History and Economics at the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

from 1988 to 1991. He then undertook a PhD in history, studying nineteenth-century elections, initially at the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

, before transferring back to the

to complete it, in 1994. He then 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. He was on the editorial board for the ''Journal of Liberal History''. He was a visiting lecturer at City University. While working for the Liberal Democrats he was Head of Innovations, running the party's 2001 and 2005 Internet general election campaigns. He was the Campaign Manager for the Hornsey & Wood Green constituency from 1998 to 2005. Pack is a long-time Liberal Democrat blogger. He was co-editor of the blog ''Liberal Democrat Voice'' until 2013. Since 2011, he has edited ''Liberal Democrat Newswire'', his monthly email newsletter about the party. Pack stood to be the president of the Liberal Democrats in 2019, with his candidacy supported by MPs

Layla Moran Layla Michelle Moran (; born 12 September 1982) is a British Liberal Democrat politician serving as the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and International Development since 2020, and serving as the Member of Parliament for O ...

and

Tom Brake Thomas Anthony Brake (born 6 May 1962) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Carshalton and Wallington in London from 1997 to 2019. He was appointed Director of the cross party pressure group Unlock ...

, and MEP

Catherine Bearder Catherine Zena Bearder (née Bailey; born 14 January 1949) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament between 2 July 2014 and 12 November 2019. She was a Member of the Eu ...

among others. The only other candidate was MP

Christine Jardine Christine Anne Jardine (born 24 November 1960) is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician serving as the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Women and Equalities, the Cabinet Office and Scotland since July 2022. She was elected as the Member o ...

. Pack was elected by 14,381 (58.6%) to 10,164 votes (41.4%) and began his term on 1 January 2020. As

, previously the leader of the party, had lost her seat in the December general election, the deputy leader

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. He ranked 5 out of 50 on the Top 50 Influential Lib Dems of 2020 list.

Bibliography

Books

*''101 Ways To Win An Election'', with Edward Maxfield (2012) *''Bad News: What the Headlines Don't Tell Us'' (2020)

Journal articles

*With Darren Lilleker and Nigel Jackson, "Political Parties and Web 2.0: The Liberal Democrat Perspective", ''Politics'', Volume 30(2), 2010, p. 105-112. *"Obama: The marketing lessons", ''Journal of Direct, Data and Marketing Practice'', Volume 12(1), 2010, p. 2-9. *"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.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pack, Mark 1970 births Living people Presidents of the Liberal Democrats (UK) Leaders of the Liberal Democrats (UK) Alumni of the University of York Alumni of the University of Exeter British male writers British bloggers