The 2026 Top Consultants: Mark Highton

Mark Highton serves as Protiviti's global Financial Crime Compliance leader, where he is responsible for the development of innovative solutions, pursuit and delivery of large-scale engagements, and optimization of Financial Crime Compliance operating and delivery capabilities. With 20 years of industry experience and 13 years of consulting experience, Mark has successfully led numerous complex, global and regional projects – and has held multiple global and regional banking leadership roles in industry in Europe and the U.S., spanning Banking Operations, HR, Finance, Shared Services and Internal Audit.

Mark has a successful track record of transforming operations – managing service, risk and compliance, cost and teams globally. He has significant experience in reengineering processes, developing organizational and service delivery models, and designing and delivering training programs in support of major change initiatives. Additionally, he is skilled at building and managing service centers, implementing systems, offshoring business processes, evaluating and designing risk and control processes, and developing and implementing key performance metrics and scorecards. He approaches his work by "Empowering the fight against Financial Crime through Optimization, Orchestration and Convergence." Mark earned a B.A. in Economics & Accounting from Liverpool University, UK.