Mark joined the IBM Markham lab in 2002 after graduating from the University of Toronto with a Ph.D. focusing on computer architecture and compiler optimization. He spent his entire IBM career in the Runtime Technologies (formerly Java Technology Center) team developing, testing, servicing, and architecting Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers. Mark led the J9 Java Virtual Machine team through the effort to significantly refactor and then to contribute millions of lines of J9 source code to two open projects : Eclipse OMR and Eclipse OpenJ9. Following this successful effort, he became the Chief Architect for Java at IBM, leading a global team that builds, innovates in, and services the IBM Semeru Runtime (JDK) for thousands of Java-based products and cloud services used by developers and small, medium, large, and huge companies spanning all sectors of the IT industry.