Mark Haysom

Mark Haysom CBE (born 1953) is a former British businessman, newspaper executive and Public Servant who spent six years as Chief Executive of the UK’s biggest quango. He is a Non-executive director of HMRC and the St Giles Trust.

Mark Haysom was awarded a degree in English from Leicester University in 1974. Having trained as a journalist and edited weekly newspapers in the north of England, he moved into general management in 1987 and spent five years with Reed International running their newspaper titles in south and west London. In 1992 he joined Thomson Regional Newspapers where he ran their free newspaper division before moving the following year to the Western Mail and South Wales Echo as Managing Director. This company was later acquired by Trinity Mirror plc and Haysom was invited to join the board in 1998.

After a brief spell as Managing Director of the Birmingham Post and Birmingham Mail Mark Haysom was appointed Managing Director of Trinity Mirror’s National Newspapers in 2001. In this role he was responsible for the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Sunday People, Daily Record (Scotland) and Sunday Mail (Scotland). During this period Piers Morgan reported to him in what was the most successful period of his editorship of the Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror became a more campaigning newspaper and won a number of newspaper awards. Mark Haysom appointed Tina Weaver as editor of the Sunday Mirror after the enforced departure of Colin Myler in 2002.

In 2003 Haysom moved into the public sector to take up the role of Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Council where he was responsible for a £14 billion budget and was reported as being one of the highest paid executives in Government. During his time in office, he reduced the staffing of the LSC from more than 5,000 to 3,000 and the organisation exceeded all of its PSA targets. In 2005 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Leicester University for his contribution to business. In 2008 he was awarded a CBE for services to education and training. He stepped down from his role in March 2009 after the LSC’s college rebuilding programme ran into difficulties. Chris Banks (LSC chair) said: “It is typical of Mark to want to take personal responsibility, as Chief Executive.”

In his resignation statement Mark Haysom said:

“I have been enormously proud of what we have achieved during my time at the LSC. The LSC has been a positive force for good and a tremendous success story. It has helped to change the lives of millions of learners in communities up and down the country."

It was widely reported at the time that Mark Haysom "took a bullet for the boss" - in other words, he resigned to avoid the issue becoming one which would cause problems for Ministers. Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, David Willetts suggested that Mr Haysom was being used as a scapegoat and was 'taking the rap for ministerial failure'.

Mark Haysom joined the Board of HMRC as a Non-executive director in 2005. In 2009 he became a trustee of the St Giles Trust, the voluntary sector organisation that has a mission to help stop ex-offenders from re-offending on release from prison. St Giles Trust also works to help young people out of gangs.

Sources

• Honorary Degree Oration
• CBE announcement
• Resignation statement
• Colleges Head Quits
• Independent article
• Epolitix interview
• Times Higher article
• Association of Colleges speech
• Who Cleans Up In Schools?
• Trinity Mirror Statement
• Smooth Operator
• Leadership in Race Equality Award
• HMRC Board profile
• Mark Haysom's appearance before IUS Select Committee
• They took a bullet for the boss
• Willetts statement
• St Giles Trust

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Name	Haysom, Mark
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Date of birth	1953
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