A native of East Belfast, Mervyn was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2020 for services to the economy. He was educated at Nettlefield Primary School before progressing to the College of Technology, where he studied Electrical Engineering. He was an apprentice at Hugh J Scott on Ravenhill Road and in 1967 he joined Sunblest Bakery on Castlereagh Road as a Maintenance Engineer. He quickly rose through the ranks to become responsible for two major bread plants – in East Belfast and Coleraine. He became Chief Executive of the rebranded Allied Bakeries in 1986 and, soon after, joined the East Belfast Enterprise board, whilst guiding the bakery business to unprecedented success with 450 employees.
Instrumental in the Connswater Greenway project, he also oversaw the building of City East and was Chair of East Belfast Enterprise for many years. He was elected Chairman of the Northern Ireland Bakery Council, President of the Irish Association of Master Bakers and has been awarded with the Freedom of the City of London. He has advised on numerous Belfast City Council and Invest NI programmes and, at the age of 60, graduated with a BA Hons in Business Management from Ulster University. Mervyn was awarded at the Eastside Awards in 2019 for his Outstanding Contribution to East Belfast.
Current Chair of the Northern Ireland Piping & Drumming School, Mervyn remains on the board of East Belfast Enterprise and is a former board member of Belfast Cathedral.
He enjoys playing golf at Belvoir Park Golf Club.