Mark Ronan is senior editor at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, where he coordinates the editorial production and copy editing of the GI’s reports, papers and online communications.

His role at the Global Initiative is to oversee editorial best practice, by helping develop high-quality publications in line with the organisation’s strategic communication goals, by supporting the network of experts on editorial content and by mentoring staff.

He has over 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry. Since 2007, Mark has been a freelance editor and journalist, providing editorial and writing services to several international research organizations and publishing houses.

He writes an editorial column on trade, business and economic relations between South Africa and China for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and has reported on issues such as China’s illegal ivory trade, abalone smuggling from South Africa to Asia and Beijing’s One Belt, One Road trade policy in terms of how it impinges on Africa.

In the UK, Mark worked for several years as a managing editor / operations manager of technical journals for a range of specialized readerships.

Mark has a degree in modern languages from Oxford University, and has worked in the media ever since graduating.

He is based in Cape Town, where he started a publishing consultancy that project-manages the editorial production of manuscripts for several South African and UK publishing houses and research organisations.

He speaks reasonably good, but increasingly rusty French and Italian, and has a pathological obsession with correct English language usage.