Mark Pavlika (aka Pav)

Professional bio

Thank you for visiting my site. 

For the past 25 years, I have worked in the professional services industry, and for the most part within marketing and live entertainment. 

I started out in finance but after 5 years of climbing the ladder, decided to make better use of my bubbly and friendly personality (as my friends would describe it) and move into a profession where I could work with people, where I felt I could add value to their

lives and had a sense of purpose. 

For approx. 20 years now, I have worked at senior level in finance and human resources and lucky to have worked at some of London’s best independent marketing agencies and global networks. My roles have included chief operating officer, finance & HR director, and from 2008 chief executive officer of my own HR outsourcing company. 

As you can imagine the learnings from each of these roles were immense, but the knowledge gained from working through some of the toughest periods in business history was invaluable. 9/11 and the 2008 Credit Crunch were both extremely volatile periods for the business world and those experiences enabled me with the insight to better manage businesses commercially whilst ensuring staff remained motivated and loyal throughout those tough times.

For the past 5 years, I have been a performance consultant and offer  people related services to businesses and founders that genuinely believe that their people are their most important asset and want to create safe and engaging cultures:

1.  Coaching and mentoring for people that want to succeed in life and their career,

2. Organisational and leadership coaching for business leaders that want to unlock potential in themselves and to make their business thrive.

3. HR director support for disruptive and 'challenging the status quo' companies that know that their staff, and the way they treat them, is their way to combined success.

Personal bio

You've read about my professional history above, but in life, I've had my fair share of ups and downs. 

I grew up in a strict Christian household as a young gay man. On the day I came out, I was given the ultimatum to either leave the family home with nowhere to go, or change. With the latter being an impossibility, I sofa surfed and slept in my car for 5 months before I got myself a place to live in a hostel. 

As you might imagine, I took a few very wrong turns, but once I was given a home, I wanted to get myself on the straight and narrow. 18 months on from leaving home, I landed an entry level job in finance and put everything of myself into turning my life around and rebuilding the relationship with my family. It took nearly 7 years of hard work to get to a harmonious place with my family, but it eventually came down to our love for one another.

In 2010, I discovered yoga and meditation to improve my mental wellbeing and I believe both have contributed to healing the shame and rejection I was subjected to when I came out. 

People now come to me for many reasons, but mostly because they want to succeed in their life or business and need direction, or they need help with solving a problem. My own past experiences in life and my profession reassure clients that I can relate to them in some way or another, which I believe builds the all-important rapport that makes the whole experience worthwhile.