Mark Balfour

Mark Balfour

Executive Director
Mark Balfour

Mark Balfour has been a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia since 1985, on the Roll of Practitioners of the High Court of Australia since 1986 and, previously, a Legal Executive in Perth, Western Australia since 1970.

Mark Balfour re-established his legal practice in Perth in 2012 after a period of 10 years variously as senior in-house legal counsel to various listed and unlisted public companies and private corporate entities. And as an Executive Director of public companies active in the resources sector in Australia, North America, China, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

 

Expertise

Mark’s areas of expertise include:

 

Background

Mark specialises in business and commercial law, succession planning, wills and probate, resources and energy law, contract negotiation (significantly enhanced by completion of a course of study at Harvard Law School in negotiation in 1991). As well as drafting, property law and urban development, corporate governance, risk assessment and business acquisitions (including mergers and acquisitions).

In his many years in private practice, Mark has maintained a long standing professional service to clients.  These clients have included statutory corporations (Federal Airports Corporation, Telstra Corporation and Australia Post), Banks and other financial institutions, greenfield urban developers, pharmacist groups, real estate franchise groups and many SMEs. Through his integrity and broad life experiences, Mark has also developed and preserved over several decades, the loyalty, trust and confidence of many families whose successive generations have looked to him for guidance and wise counsel across a multitude of issues with both legal and social outcomes.

For more than 7 years, Mark has held the office of a Trustee Director of Spinnaker Health Research Foundation (formerly Fremantle Hospital Medical Research Foundation), a charitable institution focused upon medical and community health research in Western Australia and has been the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of that Foundation for the past 4 years.

Mark has been married to his wife, Olwyn, for more than 43 years. He has 3 adult children and, presently, 5 grandchildren, all of whom give him enormous pleasure and many a reason to laugh and live life to the full. Although age and physical injury has impacted upon his capacity to be a regular active participant in his early life pursuits of rugby, Australian Rules Football, surfing and basketball, Mark maintains a keen interest in each of those sports and his regular activity of beach walking and coffee breaks.