As a young man, Mark got in the trenches serving people when he spent two years on a church mission to Northeastern Brazil. After his experience there, he went on to the University of Kentucky and then to the largest bank in central Kentucky, First Security Bank, where he served as a vice president and trust investment officer for more than six years. During his time there, he obtained the CFA® designation and rose to be the number two investment person in the $1.2 billion trust department. Following that, it was on to Bartlett & Co. in Cincinnati, before the founding of Foster & Motley.