Inventor, innovator and investor
Mark Dyer
Mark Dyer is an accomplished inventor, innovator and property investor. With decades of experience, he has spearheaded more than £750 million in successful transactions in commercial and residential property and asset management.
Innovation runs deep in Mark’s family history. On his father’s side, the Randolph family were highly successful manufacturers and prolific inventors of razor blades, including the Bonded Edge. Their legacy includes the bonded edge, garden tools, aviation fire-suppression systems used on aircrafts worldwide, aviation pyrotechnic devices, match equipment, ceremonial swords, and a wide range of other household products.
Who is Mark Dyer?
An interview with Mark Dyer
What do you do, day to day?
We buy companies. That is the business.
The way we find them is unusual, and it is the part most people don’t expect: we write letters. We have been direct mailing since 1994, and last year we sent 1.25 million of them. Outside the banks, I would be surprised if many organisations in the country send more.
Then we wait for the phone to ring. We don’t cold-call. Owners come to us when they are ready, on their own timetable, and by then they already know who we are.
The response we get still surprises me. We hear from people who tell us a relative has left them a business — and that the relative’s instruction, years earlier, was that when it happened they should contact The Hacking Trust.
What is The Hacking Trust, and how does the model work?
The Hacking Trust is the vehicle we buy through, founded in 1997.
The model is patience. We write to owners on our database and we wait for them to come back to us. Not everyone replies in a month, or a year. We regularly take calls from letters we sent more than twenty years ago — people put them in a drawer, and one day something changes and the letter comes back out.
That is only possible because the name has stayed the same and the offer has stayed the same for thirty years. We have become a known entity, and the business now expands on the back of that.
What kind of businesses do you buy, and what makes you say yes?
Old family businesses, mostly. Second, third, sometimes fourth generation.
The people who contact us are often in one of three positions. They have inherited something they never asked for. They have no real relationship with the business and no wish to run it. Or they have simply had enough.
What they all share is the same trap: there is no open market for shares in a private limited company. You can own something genuinely valuable and still have no way of turning it into money, and no obvious person to ask. We offer a route out where there usually isn’t one, which is unusual in this country.
We normally buy 50% or more. We are flexible on how a deal is structured, and because our legal team is in-house we can move quickly rather than waiting weeks on outside solicitors.
What makes me say yes is value that other people have walked past. Inherited businesses in particular are often undervalued by the very people who own them — they have never thought of it as an asset, only as an obligation.
You come from a family of inventors. What’s the story there?
My family invented the bonded edge, aviation fire-suppression systems, match-making equipment, ceremonial swords, garden tools — a long list across a lot of years.
I have always felt naturally inclined the same way. Stingblade is the first thing I have taken all the way through to a finished product, but it won’t be the last; I have other ideas I intend to get to.
They all start the same way, which is that I needed the thing myself and it didn’t exist. That is really all inventing is. Anyone can do it, and I think more people should. It is a healthy way to think, and the world ends up with more useful things in it.
Why is Stingblade made from recycled fishing nets, and why manufacture in England?
Recycled material because it means we are not putting new plastic into the world to solve a problem the ocean already has. Everyone should be recycling where they can, and we could, so we did.
England because it is a British-designed product and I wanted it to be a British-made one. Buyers respond to that. Great things used to be made in this country. We would like some of that back.
What would you tell someone starting out today?
Get up early. Keep fit. Stay off substances — they only ever let you imagine you are doing well. Keep a balanced view of everything, including your own results.
And understand that nothing surpasses hard work. Not contacts, not cleverness, not timing. Hours and hours of consistency, over years. That is the whole of it.
You’ve spent years searching for your grandmother’s remains. How does that sit alongside the business?
More naturally than people assume.
My office is set up for investigation. We investigate companies, assets, ownership and paper trails as a matter of routine — finding what is buried in a set of records is the day job. Applying that to an almost sixty-year-old case is a difference of subject, not of method.
Beyond that, there is no choice in it. We have to see that mission through to the end.
The full account of the case is at murielmckay.com.
You won the 2025 Cicero Non-Political Speech Award. What’s the secret to public speaking?
I’m not a great speaker, and I wouldn’t claim to be. What I had to say in that speech was something I cared about, and I think an audience can always tell the difference between someone performing and someone who means it.
The only technique I use, which was given to me by a professional presenter: don’t speak to the room, instead, look at one person at a time.
What are you looking for, and how should someone approach you?
We are looking for owners who want to sell and can’t — private companies with no buyer in sight and no market for their shares. That is precisely the gap we exist to fill.
We are straightforward to deal with. We don’t ask for the warranties and guarantees a trade buyer would demand, which is unusual and takes a great deal of the pain out of the process. And because our legal team sits in-house, things get done quickly.
If that sounds like your situation, contact my office. It costs nothing to have the conversation.
Awards & Achievements
1983–1985
Estate Agent
West London
Mark Dyer’s early career started with a job as an estate agent. Within 2 years, he quickly became a top salesman for the company he worked for.
1985–1988
Nelson Randolph Estates
United Kingdom
After gaining enough knowledge of the trade, Mark founded his own agency, Nelson Randolph Estates.
Within two years, Mark had successfully operated and expanded the business with two stores across London: SW1 and W1.
Mark and his business partner eventually sold the business in 1988.
1988–1989
Launched property investment companies
United Kingdom
After successfully exiting his estate agency in 1988, Mark launched a property investment company, which aligned with the Government-backed Tenancy Act (Business Expansion Scheme / B.E.S.).
1989
Founded multiple property funds
United Kingdom
Started and managed multiple property funds across lettings, residential, and investment sectors in partnership with private investors. Consistently expanded and reinvested over the years, overseeing acquisitions, tenant management, and long-term portfolio growth while maintaining strong partner relationships and a diversified investment strategy.
1997
Founded The Hacking Trust PLC
United Kingdom
Launched The Hacking Trust with private investors, forming successful joint ventures including a major partnership with Grainger PLC (now FTSE 250). Built a substantial portfolio of rack-rented and sitting-tenanted Rent Act properties over ten years, ultimately developing and selling the portfolio to Grainger PLC in 2007.
1999–Present
Expansion of The Hacking Trust PLC
United Kingdom
Led the long-term expansion of The Hacking Trust through the strategic acquisition of private limited companies via share purchases, strengthening a nationwide rack-rented and commercial property portfolio.
Over 25 years, this model enabled the company and its partners to acquire more than £750M in assets across both joint and sole ventures and 70 businesses.
Notable acquisitions include Beal and Sons Ltd, established in 1856 and historically known as a prominent Welsh manufacturer of anchors and metals.
The Hacking Trust PLC is a widely recognised brand across the UK, for its large-scale postal acquisition campaign, generating over one million letters annually. The company also owns and operates a state-of-the-art in-house mailing facility in Reading, which remains fully active.
A favourite phrase often heard from new contacts captures the success of this consistency: “Your letter arrived at the perfect time… though now I realise you’ve written every year for over 20 years.”
2022
Leading the case to solve Muriel McKay's kidnapping (Murdoch Kidnapping)
United Kingdom
Mark, the son of Dianne and grandson of Muriel, was just 5 years old when his grandmother was taken from her home at Christmas, thrusting him into a world of emotional turmoil as he watched his family unravel. For years, he carried the weight of that pain, determined to find answers.
Mark has been the driving force for getting M3 to admit that they carried out the kidnapping, a 52-year-old secret kept by the kidnapper, who gave Mark the full details of the atrocities.
For years, Mark has been the driving force behind uncovering the truth, ultimately compelling M3 to admit responsibility for the kidnapping — a 52-year-old secret finally broken when the perpetrator revealed the full extent of the atrocities committed, directly to Mark.
Between 2021 and 2025, Mark’s unwavering resolve fuelled an exhaustive search and a relentless pursuit of answers. On the 20th of November 2021, between 10pm and 1am, a 52-year deadlock was finally shattered when Mark achieved what many believed impossible: securing a final admission from the Chaplin family, identifying the most likely burial site.
Mark remains resolute — he will not rest until Muriel is brought home, no matter the cost.
2023
Invented Stingblade
United Kingdom, Spain & Australia
As a visionary investor and passionate water sports enthusiast, Mark was inspired to develop Stingblade after suffering multiple painful jellyfish stings during a swim in 2018. Driven by personal experience, he set out to create a solution that would redefine aquatic safety.
2025
Winner of the 2025 Cicero Non-Political Speech Award
United Kingdom
Mark’s speech for his involvement in helping to lead the Muriel McKay case won the 2025 Cicero Non-Political Speech Award.
Special Projects
The invention of the Stingblade
Mark had a frightening experience in the Mediterranean, where jellyfish numbers have been rising sharply. While swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, he suffered more than twenty jellyfish stings in a single swim.
As Mark put it, “I had enough venom on my skin to kill me — but using the blade technique saved me. That’s when I realised everyone should have access to this.”
Continuing his family’s tradition of innovation, he went on to design and manufacture a dedicated solution in England, made using recycled fishing nets.
The product can be seen demonstrated on the Stingblade website and is also available on Amazon.
Leading the search for Muriel McKay
Muriel McKay, Mark’s grandmother, was the wife of Alick McKay, Deputy Chairman at News International (formerly The News of the World Organisation) and a close friend of Rupert Murdoch.
In 1969, Muriel became the victim of a tragic and highly publicised kidnapping after being mistakenly identified as Murdoch’s wife, Anna Murdoch.
The case became one of the most notorious in British criminal history. It was among the first major ransom kidnappings in the United Kingdom and led to one of the country’s earliest murder convictions secured without the recovery of a body.
Lombard Liquor
Founded by Mark, Lombard Liquor Company began from a shared love of drinks among friends and a serendipitous moment — lounging on the sun-drenched aft deck of a yacht, raising a glass of what used to be their favourite beverage.
When they discovered that the original had been discontinued, they resolved to re-imagine it. The result: their signature spirit, Straight Six — a carefully crafted vodka-based beverage blending premium vodka with a secret mix of fruits, herbs and spices.
Straight Six isn’t just a drink. It’s a tribute to camaraderie, creativity and the joy of shared moments. Each bottle reflects a commitment to quality, innovation and bringing people together — offering a modern take on a timeless drink that’s perfect neat, over ice, with lemonade or in cocktails.
chelsea@lombardwharf.net
PA to Mark Dyer