Mark John Smith is the founder, owner, president, ceo and any other title he likes to adorn himself with of Smith's School of English.
Please check out his own personal biography
that he wrote himself on the "Team Smith" page of his very own website:
Smiths School of English Head Office Team
The following is a copy paste of this very biography with my comments in bold. Pay close attention as I will systematically show you the history of his lies and fraud.
Born in 1957 in Germany to an English father and Scottish mother, Mark John Smith was bound for an adventurous, internationally flavored life from the very beginning. Moving shortly thereafter to Hong Kong and finally to Australia, Mark was a seasoned traveler by the tender age of six. After having served three years in the Australian Armed Forces, Mark moved on to pursue his post graduate studies in Business Management at Wollongong University, New South Wales, Australia.
Mark Smith is the son of missionaries. He began his history by selling out a local choir for weddings unbeknownst to the minister there of and still brags about that to this day.
Concerning Mark Smith's persuit of post graduate studies, this is a lie. Mark Smith has never graduated from any University at any level.
1. Mark Smith fails to mention anything about an undergraduate course of study. Again because he never did so.
2. The correct name of the university is The University of Wollongong not Wollongong University.
3. There is no listing what so ever for a post graduate diploma or degree in Business Management at said University. Business? yes. Management? Yes. Business Management? NO!
4. In truth Smith quit School at age 15.
Contact the University of Wollongong and they can confirm they have never had a person by his name and age matriculate or even apply for matriculation at their institution.
His experiences in the international business world since then have proven that he is the epitome of what makes a successful entrepreneur in any country.
Smith's main experience with learning how to "do business" someone comes from a 3 yr stint with Amway. His Amway career was very successful, and (according to Mark) he rose rapidly through the ranks.
Before turning 30, Mark was operating at an executive level, having had extensive and varied management experience within the international nonferrous metal markets. Characterized by his analytical, disciplined nature, Mark is also a powerhouse of energy, traits which gave him the advantage he needed in playing a a leading role in moving his business forward. Such talents were noticed by others, and Mark was recruited into a Japanese trading house in 1989, where he went on to become a well known and respected figure in the international textile market, specifically industrial embroidery.
Smith married a Japanese lady and moved to Japan. From there he worked on her family's farm for a while until they helped arrange for him to work stacking inventory and boxes in the back of said embroidery firm. From there the story is unclear as to how he managed to move up but he moved into the sales department of their company.
After 4 years running between the EC and Japan, Mark was appointed CEO of a Japanese-owned startup company called Elcom International. Based in Chicago, USA, the company was set up as an international marketing venture with one aim in mind: to take a little known Greek embroidery software company called Compucon and position it on the world stage.
This is entirely false. Mark John Smith has never been the CEO of Elcom International. Please refer to this page of Elcom International's website and the following snippet from said page:
Elcom International, Inc. - Management Team Robert J Crowell
Chief Executive Officer
Robert Crowell has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since its inception in 1992. 
As you can see, there's only been one CEO of Elcom International. Mark Smith doesn't even have the correct city or State of the HQ of Elcom International: Norwood, Mass.
Launched in 1991 in the midst of a competitive field dominated by well established industry giants, Elcom managed to beat the odds. By 1995, Compucon's product had been succcessfully launched in 18 countries, and Elcom's job was done. In March 2002, Compucon was listed on the Greek stock exchange.
As you can see from the above website's information, Mark Smith can't even get the dates correct. Why? Because Smith never did any of the things mentioned.
What did happen was that Mark was skimming money off the top of sales contracts he set up with various international clients (Marks Smiths words to me) and he was using his Japanese secretary to keep this a secret, but eventually many of Smith's lies, he couldn't keep them straight and was caught.... not only for the skimming, but for as well having an affair with said secretary (old habits die hard). Thus he was fired and took his secretary with him whom he later went onto marrying.
In 1996, looking for new challenges, Mark decided to apply his talents to the ESL market in Japan. He is the founder and present Chairman of Smith's School of English and founder and CEO of SSE-Franchises. His vision remains still clear today: to wrestle ownership and control of the English teaching industry from corporate Japan and put it where it belongs, in the hands of the teacher. His past experiences of turning underdogs into champions shows that it can, and will, be done.
Yes, I imagine he met with alot of challenges in 1996 due to the above. He created the group and has been continuing to xxx and xxxxx people ever since. This right here should set off alarm bells by the dozens that there is confirmable proof that this guy is willing to claim these things falsely about himself to mislead others who mistake him to be something he isn't. People have trusted that information in the past to mean he was an upfront businessman. Instead he's just a snake oil salesman.