Mark Versallion

Mark Anthony Gaius Versallion is a British politician, businessman, and officer in the Royal Naval Reserve. He was the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Stretford and Urmston from 2007 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2011 was Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Forum of the Conservative Party. Since 2011 he has been a Cabinet member of Central Bedfordshire unitary authority.

Born in Cornwall, England, Versallion established his first business in 1988, a music promotions and equipment company, and was educated at the University of Westminster in business and economics. He then gained a master's degree in politics at the University of Reading, tutored by John Cottingham, and at Reading was elected chairman of post-graduates. After being admitted to the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Carlton Club, he gained a joint doctorate at the Universities of Oxford and Reading.

During the 1990s Versallion worked in the House of Commons as an aide to Cabinet Office Minister, Robert Hughes MP, and in 1996 was elected chairman of the Young Conservatives. In 1997 he joined BAE Systems, moving on from there to Capgemini. After working for U. S. Senator Rod Grams in the 2000 U.S. elections, Versallion returned home and founded the London marketing agency VML. He was its managing director in London and Minneapolis from 2001-11. In 2011, on his election to Central Bedfordshire Council, he gave up operational control of his company and became its chairman, making more time for politics. Versallion was a non-executive director of the North West London NHS Hospitals Trust from 2008-13 and since 2013 has been a non-executive director of the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital.

In 1996 Versallion was recruited by the Royal Navy Reserve. Before passing out from Britannia Royal Naval College he served aboard the destroyer HMS Gloucester. After Dartmouth he served aboard the frigate HMS Richmond before appointment to classified roles. In 2009 he deployed on Operation Pearl, a counter-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa. In 2010 he was awarded the VR medal. He is a graduate of the Joint Services Command and Staff College and of the NATO School at Oberammergau, Germany and holds the rank of Lieutenant.

In 1997, Versallion became a school governor and in 1998 was elected deputy chairman of his constituency association. In 1996 he had been selected for the Harrow London Borough Council seat of Harrow on the Hill, but in the local elections of 1998 he lost by five votes, in a cliff-hanger election with three recounts. The result decided the overall control of the Council. He was encouraged to fight on by his friend Nicholas Bethell.

In 2002, Versallion was elected as a Harrow councillor for Harrow on the Hill, and at the same time the Conservatives narrowly gained control there. In nine years at Harrow, he led on Performance and Finance, Education, and Children and Young People, and also acted as Chief Whip when there was a Conservative majority of only one. Outside the council, Versallion was Chairman of Harrow Hill Trust Community Relations, a Director of Harrow Fields Gardens Estate Company, and a member of the Board of the Harrow Heritage Trust. From 2007 to 2011 he served on the Deputy Lieutenants' Committee, and due to his naval experience was also the Borough Council's sole representative on the Reserve Forces and Cadets Association.

In 2011, Versallion was elected to Central Bedfordshire Council for the ward of Heath and Reach. After his nomination as Bedfordshire's Portfolio Holder for Education in 2011, to avoid conflict of interest, Versallion himself ceded his place as a Councillor in London in order to avoid double responsibilities. He was appointed cabinet portfolio holder for Children's Services and Schools and resigned from Harrow Council.

He also resigned from his day job as director of a marketing company to focus on his Cabinet role in Central Bedfordshire. Versallion became Military Covenant Champion for Central Bedfordshire in 2011. According to The Times, he quickly changed the policy of the Council to enable rapid school reorganisation. In a BBC One TV news interview on 17 April 2012 he defended his decision to close a state-run PRU school and create a new free school in its place, controversially with Council assets. In 2012-13 Versallion converted ten schools' age ranges, bringing to an end the decades-long arguments over the three tier education system in Bedfordshire. In 2014 he closed a further three schools. He was the subject of a government film on these changes.

In 2015 national media reported that Versallion was planning to create a new grammar school in Bedfordshire.

In 2007 Versallion was selected as the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Stretford and Urmston, a position he resigned from in October 2009. In December 2009, it was reported that Versallion had become chairman of the Foreign Affairs Forum of the Conservative Party. His first overseas engagement was in Macedonia in January 2010, representing the Conservative Party, with Lord Foulkes representing Labour, in meetings with the parliament and Trajko Veljanovski. His term of office ended in 2011.

Versallion is the author of:

• A Conquest of Thoughts (London: Powell Press, 1995, ISBN 0952744104)
• Furore Poeticus (London: Powell Press, 1996)

• A Conquest of Thoughts, outline page at books.google.co.uk, accessed 23 Dec 2013