Mark Waites was born in Leeds in 1962. There he got an education, an accent and a football team.

He is Joint Creative Director and a founding partner of Mother. He started his career in London where he worked for several agencies including BMP, Legas Delaney and O&M.

In '92 he moved to New York and worked for a couple of agencies with a 6 month break in-between shops to ride a motorcycle from Alaska to the tip of South America.

Over 9 years ago Mark moved back to London to be one of four people who started Mother. They opened an office in New York December 2003 and Buenos Aires late 2005.

When he's not writing ads Mark is the undisputed king of the unfinished screenplay having failed to finish hundreds. A short film he wrote and directed was accepted into over 60 film festivals around the World in 2003/4 and picked up 'Best Short' in six of them.

Mark also won an EMMY award for "Best National Public Service Campaign" for an HIV awareness TV campaign created for MTV North America.