A son of a corporate executive, “Smoke” was raised in the suburbs of New York City with four sisters. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned as a Marine in 1976. He has had operational jobs that range from being a Weapons Platoon Commander to a Commander of a night-attack F/A-18 squadron. He is a graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and the Air War College and has over 4,000 hours in over 40 different type, model, series light civil, helicopter, sailplane, transport, and fighter/attack aircraft.

He had three tours as a test pilot and led the integration of many systems on the F/A-18, including AMRAAM, Maverick, Night Attack navigation, Harpoon, Laser Guided ordnance, various AIM-9 variants and was the first to fly with a helmet mounted visor display in a fighter class airplane. Spending part of his career in acquisition, he was the Chief Systems Engineer at the F-35 Program Office, and a program manager for both the Government and Industry, having spent 12 years as a Vice President at the Boeing Company, after 28 years of active duty service. He retired from Boeing in 2016, as the President and CEO of two Boeing subsidiaries: ArgonST and DRT. John is currently a part-time professor at the Defense Acquisition University, teaching a range of topics to include Program Management, Systems Engineering, Industry behaviors, Requirements Management, and Leadership Development. He assumed the role as MCAA Executive Director in August 2018.
 

John and his wife, Patty, have been married for 28 years; he has four grown children. He is an avid woodworker, enjoys playing the guitar and violin, and continues to fail in his attempts to keep his lawn and a variety of plants alive at home.