About John
A Blend of Global Experience, Education and Common Sense to Strengthen our Community
John discovered the Town of The Blue Mountains in 1980 as a weekender and now calls it home. It began as his retreat from life’s pressures and the Town has nurtured his whole family experience. He longed to see the red beacon of the Thornbury Water Tower (his kids called it the Thornbury Moon) on a Friday night so it was easy to make his final move to here.
John grew up in Burlington, Ontario, a town which in his lifetime has transitioned from a town of under 20,000 residents to almost 200,000 today. There he experienced development and growth pressures similar to Blue Mountains. Burlington is consistently ranked in the top five places to live in Canada, and John will draw on this experience in directing our course here in The Blue Mountains.
John retired from a career which encompassed banking and corporate business and most recently consulting to start up and small businesses. He is now devoted to this campaign and to getting to work once elected and sworn in. Banking is an excellent opportunity to hone your numbers skills and to meet people and learn how broad the needs of a community can be.
His 25 year corporate life was with one private entity. He rose from a territorial sales role in one division to become the World Wide Managing Director of the Company for 19 years, transforming it from a Canadian / North American market centric operation to a multi-national corporation operating in Asia, Australasia, South America, Africa and Europe. For decades, John regularly travelled and cultivated common ground across different cultures building consensus and establishing teams with the tools to facilitate continuous forward progress. One of his key skills is being an effective problem solver.
John holds an Hons BA in Political Science from Western University, a Master’s in Political Science from McMaster University and a Graduate Degree in Public Administration Local Government from Western University. His graduate degree focus was on administration and operations with an emphasis on revenue management. He expanded his skills with formal executive educational programs at both Queen's University School of Business and Harvard Business School.
John knows the importance of getting the project details right in the beginning, tracking performance against them with clear objectives and empowering teams so they have the capacity to get the job done as expected.
He describes his approach with two acronyms:
- KISS – Keep it Simple and Straight Forward
- Assume = Ass / u/ me - Doing this will make an “ass out of you and me”. I care about the minutia.
John's wife, Beth, is a professional in her own right and currently works with a major Canadian Hospital Group Foundation. Beth will be joining John full time in town this fall once a major summer season fundraising event is completed.
John and Beth have two sons who have spent a lot of their formative years here. AJ is making his professional career in downtown Toronto. Trevor, who now calls Thornbury home, is employed while working to complete his post secondary education and plans to work in the area.
Building Bridges to Our Future!
Read John's platform and priorities for the Town of the Blue Mountains.