About Mark
Mark Kass is CEO of enterprise development advisory firm, Enterprise4Good and enterprise skills agency Scale-Up East, a successful micro and SME business growth programme focused on East London entrepreneurs, business owners and leaders.
Scale-Up East is designed to make publicly funded programmes more accessible to “everyday” East London businesses and Mark is proud that these wraparound programmes have successfully helped fill programmes like the Government’s Help to Grow programme, is a design and delivery partner with UCL & UAL in the award-winning Business Builder programme, is active promoting the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard and working with the London Legacy Development Corporation and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s Eastbank Partners of UCL East, V&A East, BBC, Sadler’s Wells East and University of Art’s London, London College of Fashion (where he is a visiting Lecturer and their Entrepreneur-in-Residence), on building local supply chains and delivering supportive and inclusive micro and SME procurement programmes.
Mark is a qualified optician and having sold his three practices in Ilford, Barking & Chingford, in 2000 he joined the East London Small Business Centre (ELSBC), the charitable enterprise agency for East London as Development Director.
He successfully chaired the local authority Local Strategic Partnership economic development partnerships in Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham and Havering and sat on the boards of the LSPs for Tower Hamlets and Newham working closely with key local public, private and voluntary sector stakeholders to promote and deliver economic growth in those boroughs.
At ELSBC, he was responsible for the co-design, delivery and strategic development of business start-up and growth support programmes in and alongside flexible workspaces across East London & Essex including what is now Expressway in Silvertown, the £14m government Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) funded Barking Enterprise Centre in Barking Town Centre and more recently and under his own steam, The Hive Enterprise Centre in Southend-on-Sea.
Mark sat for eight years on the Board of the Flexible Space Association, the trade body for the serviced office and co-working industry in the UK and until recently was the Enterprise Development and Strategy Director of the Newham Chamber of Commerce.
During the bidding and construction periods of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Mark became the local “Small Business Ambassador” working with the London Development Agency, the Olympic Delivery Authority and LOCOG, the organisers of the Games.
Today, Mark sits on a variety of public and private sector boards, committees and consultative groups representing local micro and SMEs in the development of local and wider East London inclusive economic development strategies and action plans.
His passion for jazz music - both as a fan and as a grassroots music promoter - has led him to become Executive Chair & CEO of the National Jazz Archive and a past-board member of the UK jazz trade body the Jazz Promotion Network.
Often referred to as “Mr East London” (!), Mark is vociferous in promoting local and regional economic growth through the inclusion, innovation and entrepreneurship agenda, and is as passionate about culture-led regeneration as he is about all-things business; wherever possible - and often all-too-shamelessly - will promote the synergy between innovative jazz music and improvising business strategy!
As well as jazz, Mark is an avid scuba diver instructor and has dived in the Royal Docks in Silvertown...once...and once only !
AUGUST 2026
Scale-Up East is designed to make publicly funded programmes more accessible to “everyday” East London businesses and Mark is proud that these wraparound programmes have successfully helped fill programmes like the Government’s Help to Grow programme, is a design and delivery partner with UCL & UAL in the award-winning Business Builder programme, is active promoting the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard and working with the London Legacy Development Corporation and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s Eastbank Partners of UCL East, V&A East, BBC, Sadler’s Wells East and University of Art’s London, London College of Fashion (where he is a visiting Lecturer and their Entrepreneur-in-Residence), on building local supply chains and delivering supportive and inclusive micro and SME procurement programmes.
Mark is a qualified optician and having sold his three practices in Ilford, Barking & Chingford, in 2000 he joined the East London Small Business Centre (ELSBC), the charitable enterprise agency for East London as Development Director.
He successfully chaired the local authority Local Strategic Partnership economic development partnerships in Redbridge, Barking and Dagenham and Havering and sat on the boards of the LSPs for Tower Hamlets and Newham working closely with key local public, private and voluntary sector stakeholders to promote and deliver economic growth in those boroughs.
At ELSBC, he was responsible for the co-design, delivery and strategic development of business start-up and growth support programmes in and alongside flexible workspaces across East London & Essex including what is now Expressway in Silvertown, the £14m government Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) funded Barking Enterprise Centre in Barking Town Centre and more recently and under his own steam, The Hive Enterprise Centre in Southend-on-Sea.
Mark sat for eight years on the Board of the Flexible Space Association, the trade body for the serviced office and co-working industry in the UK and until recently was the Enterprise Development and Strategy Director of the Newham Chamber of Commerce.
During the bidding and construction periods of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Mark became the local “Small Business Ambassador” working with the London Development Agency, the Olympic Delivery Authority and LOCOG, the organisers of the Games.
Today, Mark sits on a variety of public and private sector boards, committees and consultative groups representing local micro and SMEs in the development of local and wider East London inclusive economic development strategies and action plans.
His passion for jazz music - both as a fan and as a grassroots music promoter - has led him to become Executive Chair & CEO of the National Jazz Archive and a past-board member of the UK jazz trade body the Jazz Promotion Network.
Often referred to as “Mr East London” (!), Mark is vociferous in promoting local and regional economic growth through the inclusion, innovation and entrepreneurship agenda, and is as passionate about culture-led regeneration as he is about all-things business; wherever possible - and often all-too-shamelessly - will promote the synergy between innovative jazz music and improvising business strategy!
As well as jazz, Mark is an avid scuba diver instructor and has dived in the Royal Docks in Silvertown...once...and once only !
AUGUST 2026
