Mark Bouris is an Australian businessman who is best known as the founder and chairman of 'Wizard Home Loans', Australia's second largest non-bank mortgage lender behind Aussie Home Loans. He is now the chairman of Yellow Brick Road, a business which he founded in 2007.[1]
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Bouris came from humble beginnings and credits his parents George and Marsha Bouris with instilling in him the discipline and values that propelled him from the working-class Sydney suburb of Punchbowl to the boardroom of one of the world's largest companies.[2]
Wizard Home Loans was founded by Bouris in 1996 and was sold to GE Money in 2004 for $500 million.[3][4] Subsequently Wizard was sold by GE to competitor, Aussie Home Loans, for a fraction of the $500 million during the midst of the Global Financial Crisis in December 2008. However, thousands of mortgage holders were left locked into a loan with a GE Money subsidiary that refused to pass on interest reductions but did increase interest rates in line with RBA increases.
On 18 June 2009, Bouris became the chairman of TZ Limited. Bouris wrote “I am a true believer in TZ, its technology, its people and now its working rhythms. I am excited about the future and I am privileged to be involved in what I consider to be an extraordinarily bright future for this company.”[5]
He currently is the chairman of Yellow Brick Road[6] which is involved in finance planning, finance advice, wealth management and home loans.[7] Mark is a board member and supporter of the Sydney Roosters rugby league team, in the National Rugby League of Australia.[8]
In August 2011 Mark was appointed as non-executive chairman of Anteo Diagnostics, an Australian biotechnology company that provides innovative medical diagnostic technologies.
Bouris first entered the BRW Rich 200 list in 2005[9] and in 2007 he was included on the list for the second time.[10]
Bouris is well known by Australians for his personal appearance in Wizard Home Loan commercials[11] during the late 1990s and early 21st century. Based on his high media profile, on 8 June 2009, Bouris was named as the host of the Australian version of The Apprentice to air on the Nine Network, the series aired in 2009 but only remained on air for one season.[6] Bouris remained as host, when the spin-off series The Celebrity Apprentice Australia premiered in October 2011. The Celebrity Apprentice was a huge success, and often rated within the top 5 television programs of the day. In November 2011, the nine network announced that they had renewed the series for a second season to air sometime in 2012.