Mark Atkinson has been traveling to developing countries to help children’s surgical charities for more than three decades.
He is an extremely talented photographer and videographer. The amazing photos he takes, and emotional videos have helped mu surgical charities raise awareness — and millions of dollars.
For decades, he has done all this work for free.
In fact, it costs them money because he takes so much time off from his job.
For Mark, it’s really a labor of love. When you see his work, and talk to him, you can tell how much he cares about the children that these charities help, the selfless doctors and nurses that provide the surgeries that change their lives, and the people who work for these charities and support these charities.
I’ve traveled with Mark on trips for both Smile Train and WonderWork, all over the world including Afghanistan, Vietnam, Haiti, India, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Rwanda, China, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Over the years, Mark has learned a tremendous amount about the best way to provide surgeries in developing countries and how to build and run a productive and cost-effective charities. So, I invited him to join the Smile Train board when we were just getting started. He provided invaluable experience and the unique perspective.
Mark fought hard to save Smile Train during Charles Wang’s takeover and I will always be and grateful to him for that. I remember one board meeting when Mark confronted Wang and asked him why he was putting all his employees on the Smile Train board. It was the elephant in the room but no one else dared ask that question. Wang glared at Mark and told him that if he didn’t like it, he could leave.
But Mark didn’t leave, he stayed and fought to save Smile Train.
Mark was one of a few independent (and brave) directors on the Smile Train board who voted against Wang’s merger attempt and when that failed, who went to the New York State Attorney General and asked him to stop Wang.
When the AG decided to get involved, Wang immediately canceled his ill-conceived merger. This gave many of us hope that we could save Smile Train. But those hopes faded fast when Wang refused to rehire the senior management team he had fired allegedly because of the merger. And instead promoted a team of junior employees that he could control. Soon thereafter, Wang kicked both Mark and me – the last remaining independent board members – off of the Smile Train board before our terms had ended.
When I started WonderWork, I asked Mark to join that board also. He also came on a lot of trips and helped us quickly build an outstanding library of patient and partner photos and videos.
Mark really helped WonderWork get off to a faster start than Smile Train.
Just five years after we launched, WonderWork was on track to help provide 135,000 surgeries a year.
But just a few months later, Wang’s lawyers forced us into bankruptcy and ultimately out of business.
