Founder & CEO, Living Lab

Mark Alexander is the founder and CEO of Living Lab, where he has built a sovereign-grade intelligence platform purpose-built to model, simulate, and optimise the global visitor economy.

His work is guided by the principle of modelling reality, not the limits of existing models. A veteran of the NBA and F1  Mark’s career has evolved from negotiating major events hosting agreements to architecting the economic intelligence layer now used by governments and global organisers to plan the future of their event economies.

What began as bespoke economic reasoning has been transformed into repeatable, auditable intelligence –  integrating aviation, hotels, events, and infrastructure into a single living economic model designed to support ministerial decision-making and withstand public scrutiny.

Mark is explicit about the risks he seeks to eliminate. He is critical of headline-driven investment in sport and major events that prioritises visibility over viability, often leaving cities and their communities with political, social and fiscal exposure.

His work is grounded in the belief that sports, MICE and cultural events and destinations should strengthen communities rather than distort them, and that economic evidence must guide ambition, not follow it.

This perspective shapes Living Lab’s work across global sports and MICE platforms — from the Olympics, Sailing, Football, basketball and Motorsport to LEAP, Cannes Lions, Monaco Yacht Show, GDC and other major communities – each treated as a temporary concentration of civic life embedded within a broader urban system.

Mark Alexander was a visiting lecturer at the top-ranked university in Russia for international relations and diplomacy the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) the diplomatic school of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a contributor to SDA Bocconi’s Sports & Entertainment Centre ranked the top postgraduate sports management course in Europe.

He advises the Global Esports Federation and sits on the advisory board of the World Technology Games.