Dr. Robert M. Mark is the Chief Executive Officer of Black Diamond which provides corporate governance, risk management consulting and transaction services. He serves on several Boards such as the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, IBM's Deep Computing Institute, Checkpoint Canada, The Royal Conservatory and is an Advisory Director on Entergy Koch's Audit Committee of the Board . He also serves on Checkpoint's Investment Committee. In 1998, he was awarded the Financial Risk Manager of the Year by the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). He is the Chairperson of The Professional Risk Managers' International Association's (PRMIA) Blue Ribbon Panel

Prior to his current position, he was the Senior Executive Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). Dr. Mark was a member of the Management Committee. Dr. Mark's global responsibility covered all credit, market and operating risks for all of CIBC as well as for its subsidiaries. Prior to his CRO position, he was the Corporate Treasurer at CIBC.

Prior to CIBC, he was the partner in charge of the Financial Risk Management Consulting practice at Coopers & Lybrand(C&L). The Risk Management Practice and C&L advised clients on risk management issues and was directed toward financial institutions and multi-national corporations. This specialty area also coordinated the delivery of the firm's accounting, tax, control, and litigation services to provide clients with integrated and comprehensive risk management solutions and opportunities.

Prior to his position at C&L, he was a managing director in the Asia, Europe, and Capital Markets Group (AECM) at Chemical Bank. His responsibilities within AECM encompassed risk management, asset/liability management, research (quantitative analysis), strategic planning and analytical systems. He served on the Senior Credit Committee of the Bank. Before he joined Chemical Bank, he was a senior officer at Marine Midland Bank/Hong KongShanghaiBank (HKSB) where he headed the technical analysis trading group within the Capital Markets Sector.

He earned his Ph.D., with a dissertation in options pricing, from New York University's Graduate School of Engineering and Science, graduating first in his class. Subsequently, he received an Advanced Professional Certificate (APC) in accounting from NYU's Stern Graduate School of Business, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. He is an Adjunct Professor and co-author of "Risk Management" (McGraw-Hill), published in October 2000. He also served on the board of ISDA as well as the Chairperson of the National Asset/Liability Management Association (NALMA).