John is a past president of Socitm and is currently editor of the Society's annual IT Trends publication.

He was Head of IT at Lincolnshire County Council from 1987 to September 2000, where he was responsible for the development of trading units and the introduction of market testing for services. Since leaving Lincolnshire John specialises in change management programmes. He has advised a number of public sector organisations on setting up strategic partnerships. He now works as an independent consultant and more recently project managed the Council's Alternative Service Delivery programme which resulted in the transfer of 1200 support services jobs to the private sector, the creation of a new business centre in Lincoln and massive savings for the council. John led a team of 20 senior officers; he was the chief negotiator for the council and the main advisor to the council for the project. He has extensive experience in the area of service specification, Business Process Re-engineering, risk and performance management. John is an advisor on CIPFA's Best Value Advisory network and designs and delivers programmes for them. This provides contact with about half the councils in the UK.  He has been a member of the Competitiveness Joint Committee (CJC) for a number of years and is an acknowledged expert on Procurement in the public sector.

Before joining Lincolnshire John held the head of IT post in Norfolk and the Kent Police. He has also worked in a central purchasing environment and in the print, reprographics and textile industries. John trained as a systems engineer and spent his early career in the development of hardware and software for business.