John received his planning education at Oxford Polytechnic and worked in Coventry, Rotherham and London. He is Chair and Chief Executive of LEA Group Holdings Ltd. an international transportation, engineering and planning consultants with more than 1000 employees in five countries. Previously he was Managing Partner Canada for Coopers & Lybrand Management Consultants, and President of the Canadian Urban Institute, an urban policy think tank.

He is a professional planner and management consultant whose work is focused on city management and urban policy. For government clients he has undertaken projects on city planning, city management and economic development. He has also worked extensively for the private sector including Honda, General Motors, Mazda, Spar Aerospace, the Bank of Montreal, and a number of real estate development companies.