Mark Leigh Bouris (born 30 November 1960) is an Australian businessman who is best known as the founder and chairman of Wizard Home Loans, Australia's second largest non-bank

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners t ...

lender behind

Aussie Home Loans Australians, colloquially known as Aussies, are the citizens, nationals and individuals associated with the country of Australia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or ethno-cultural. For most Australians, these connection ...

. He is now the chairman of Yellow Brick Road, a business which he founded in 2007. Bouris was the host of ''

The Celebrity Apprentice Australia ''The Celebrity Apprentice Australia'' is an Australian reality television series which aired on the Nine Network. Based on NBC's '' The Apprentice'', it first aired on 24 October 2011 and originally featured Mark Bouris, the founder and chair ...

'' from 2011 to 2015. He has also hosted ''

The Apprentice Australia ''The Apprentice Australia'' was an Australian reality television series which aired on the Nine Network. It was based on NBC's '' The Apprentice''. It first aired on 28 September 2009 and last aired on 23 November 2009, and features Mark Bouris ...

'' and ''The Mentor'', and has written numerous books and appeared on various podcasts. He manages Instagram and YouTube on social media.

Early life

Mark Bouris was born in

Punchbowl, New South Wales Punchbowl is a suburb in the south west of Sydney, South-West of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. At the , Punchbowl had a popula ...

, to a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

father of the

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

faith and an Irish-Australian mother of the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

faith. and lived in Punchbowl until the age of 18. Bouris attended Benilde High School in the nearby suburb of

Bankstown Bankstown is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 19 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Canterbury-Bankstown region. Bankstown is the administrative centre ...

. After high school, Bouris attended the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

Business career

Wizard Home Loans was founded by Bouris in 1996 and was sold to GE Money in 2004 for $500 million. In December 2008, during the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

, Wizard was sold by GE to Aussie Home Loans for a fraction of the $500 million previous valuation.

Current business

On 18 June 2009, Bouris became the chairman of TZ Limited. He currently is the chairman of Yellow Brick Road which is involved in finance planning, finance advice, wealth management and home loans. He is a board member and supporter of the

Sydney Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

rugby league team, in the Australian

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

. In August 2011, Bouris was appointed as non-executive chairman of Anteo Diagnostics, an Australian biotechnology company that provides innovative medical diagnostic technologies. He is also a Non-Executive Chairman of Serena Resources Limited, an Australian public resources company focused on developing copper opportunities in Chile.

Awards

Bouris first entered the

BRW Rich 200 The ''Financial Review Rich List'', formerly known as the ''BRW Rich 200'', is a list of Australia's two hundred wealthiest individuals and families, ranked by personal net worth published annually in ''The Australian Financial Review Magazine' ...

list in 2005 and in 2007, he was included on the list for the second time. In 2012, Bouris was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Business degree (Hon.D.Bus.) from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (Hon.D.Litt.) from the now Western Sydney University (WSU). At the

2015 Australia Day Honours The 2015 Australia Day Honours were announced on 26 January 2015 by the Governor General of Australia, Sir Peter Cosgrove. The Australia Day Honours are the first of the two major annual honours lists, announced on Australia Day (26 January), wit ...

, Bouris was appointed a Member of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for significant service to the finance industry, particularly the home loan mortgage sector, to education, and to charitable organisations.

Media personality

Bouris has been well known by Australians for his personal appearance in Wizard Home Loan commercials during the late 1990s and early 21st century. He has also been well known by the Greek community because he has

heritage. Based on his high media profile, on 8 June 2009, Bouris was named as the host of the Australian version of ''

The Apprentice An apprentice is someone who is in training for a trade, profession. The Apprentice or Apprentice may also refer to: Television * ''The Apprentice'' (American TV series), the original reality television series * ''The Apprentice'' (franchise), ...

'' to air on the Nine Network, the series aired in 2009 but only remained on air for one season.Mark Bouris casts his spell on The Apprentice
/ref> Bouris remained as host when the spin-off series ''

'' 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, which began airing in April 2012 and featured imported celebrity

David Hasselhoff David Michael Hasselhoff (born July 17, 1952), nicknamed "The Hoff", is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He has set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on TV. Hasselhoff first gained recognition on the soap ...

. As well as regular media appearances, Bouris hosts ''The Mentor'', a weekly podcast produced and distributed through the PodcastOne network. In 2017, it was announced Mark Bouris would be turning the podcast into a reality television show. In November 2020, Mark Bouris launched his new podcast ''Straight Talk''.

References

External links

Australian Economic Outlook
on Property Club Conference
mark_bouris Official Instagram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bouris, Mark Living people Australian billionaires Australian people of Greek descent Australian people of Irish descent Australian company founders Australian chief executives Members of the Order of Australia Businesspeople from Sydney 1960 births Mortgage industry of Australia Australian podcasters University of New South Wales alumni