In building a sustainable enterprise to make DeltaDancing accessible to a wider audience Mark draws upon his experience from dual careers in commerce and the arts.
In Commerce
Mark has built a career as a high energy, results oriented management professional. His range of experience extends from leading and growing start-up firms and turn-arounds to directing strategy for corporate divisions. Weston has led company growth in products and services across a wide range of industries including the Performing Arts, Internet, Wireless Telecom, Software, Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals. He has a strong business record of using market understanding to generate top line growth and company value. He has worked with Motorola, Baxter, IBM, AT&T and other F500 companies. His functional experience is wide ranging and includes general management, business development & strategy, marketing, finance, and new product development. Additionally, Mark has worked in private equity with investment bankers. He received an M.B.A. from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
In the Arts
He has been active in the Chicago performing arts community for over 25 years as producer, performer, music director/composer/arranger, and song writer. As Executive Artistic Director of Apple Tree Theatre the company was cited for outstanding artistic achievements in Chicago theatre. He has worked with many of Chicago’s leading theatrical venues including Chicago Shakespeare, Steppenwolf, as music director for its production of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, and others. At Apple Tree Theatre he served as music director for an adaptation of Moliere’s Scapin; composer for Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ross Lehman’s In My Father’s House; composer and lyricist for Toga Tales, a children’s musical play by Mark Lococo; and sound designer for The Swan. He composed music for The Gift of the Magi, with book and lyrics by Ross Lehman and co-produced the Jeff-nominated production of the Kurt Weill revue, Berlin to Broadway at the Theatre Building. He has been a featured performer with Bernadette Peters, Dionne Warwick, Angela Lansbury, Nancy Wilson, Jim Nabors, Isaac Hayes, Anthony Newley, Shirley Jones, Patti Page and others. He has a BA in Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and finished most of the course work for a PhD in Musicology from the University of Chicago.