John joined Hawker de Havilland in 1983 as an aeronautical engineer. In 1985 he joined Qantas, progressing through various Engineering and Customer Services Groups, before being promoted to the position of Manager Military Customers in 1993. Leaving Qantas in 1996, he joined Coopers and Lybrand Management Consulting Services. Rejoining Qantas in 1999 he was General Manager Defence Services; and then General Manager Commercial. He was involved in major defence contracts including the C-130 Weapon System, the RAAF Special Purpose Aircraft fleet and the EADS-QDS KC-30A Tanker.
Leaving QDS in February 2004, John joined Hawker Pacific as the Vice President MRO Australia, responsible for all commercial aircraft MRO activities in Australia across 14 facilities.
In 2007, John established True / False Consulting to provide strategy and business development, implementation, project management, tender team leadership and client engagement services in the Defence, Aerospace, Rail and Resource sectors.