Mr Mark Reynolds commenced duty as the Counsellor Defence Materiel in the Australian Embassy in Washington DC in January 2006. He is a graduate of the Royal Australian Air Force Engineer Cadet program as an Mechanical/Aeronautical Engineer and served for nearly 20 years. Postings during his Air Force career included Mirage support at RAAF Williamtown, training management at the RAAF School of Technical Training in Wagga Wagga, engineering liaison as the Resident Engineer at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation at Fishermens' Bend, Victoria and numerous postings on major capital acquisition and upgrade projects in both Air Force Logistics Command, Melbourne and Materiel Division - Air Force, Canberra. Mr Reynolds joined the Commonwealth Public Service in the Department of Defence in 1994. In 1995 he was appointed the Director Australian Industry Involvement within the Defence Acquisition Organisation to implement the 1994 Bevis Report findings and align activities with the 1992 Price Report and 1994 Industry Commission Report on Defence Procurement. In 1998, Mr Reynolds was appointed Director Contracting Policy and during this term was involved in development of the SMART 2000 tendering template for major capital acquisitions and introduction of Alliancing into Defence as a contracting strategy. In late 2000 he was the Director Defence Electronic Procurement with the charter of coordinating implementation of the Government's Online Strategy across the portfolio. Between April 2001 and August 2004 Mr Reynolds was the Director General Electronic Warfare with responsibility for airborne, maritime and force level electronic protection, detection and surveillance capabilities. In August 2004 he was appointed Director General Electronic Systems Integration to provide the DMO with a focal point for the implementation of Network Centric Warfare. This role included DMO's involvement in the Rapid Prototyping, Development and Evaluation program, implementation of the Defence Electronic Systems Sector Strategic Plan, and a portfolio of major projects valued at approximately A$1.3b.

Mr Reynolds has a Diploma of Mechanical Engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, a Bachelor of Business and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Science (Computing) from Charles Sturt University, and a Graduate Certificate in Strategic Procurement from Deakin University.