Marc Etches

Having graduated in Leisure Management at Leeds Polytechnic in 1983, Marc has since spent more than 25 years as a senior executive in a number of UK leisure businesses including Center Parcs Ltd, Leisure Parcs Ltd, Granada plc and First Leisure Corporation plc. He was managing director of Windsor Safari Park for five years followed by six years with Center Parcs, a company that set new high-standards for domestic tourism in the UK during the 1990s. Having accepted a move to join the Walt Disney Company in Paris in 1998, he was persuaded instead to take up the role of managing director of Leisure Parcs Limited, owners of Blackpool Tower, and to lead the political campaign for resort casino development as a catalyst for the economic regeneration of Blackpool.

In 2004, when it became clear that Leisure Parcs’ aspirations were likely to be frustrated, he chose to leave the company and established a successful consultancy business, which provided operational and strategic advice to clients with an interest in leisure, gambling, hospitality, and tourism. During this time, he worked with Professor Peter Collins at the Centre for the Study of Gambling at Salford University and embarked upon a PhD in public policy on a part-time basis, and also acted as interim Chief Executive of Visit Lincolnshire, the destination management partnership responsible for marketing tourism and the wider visitor economy on behalf the public, private and third sectors throughout Lincolnshire.

Marc took up the role of Chief Executive of Responsibility in Gambling Trust Ltd (now trading as Responsible Gambling Trust) in July 2011.