John began his career over 45 years ago as a draughtsman for the Ministry of Works and Development, at the same time studying for his New Zealand Certificate and Bachelor of Engineering at Canterbury University. Over his career he has also become a member of the Professional Engineers Institute of New Zealand (MPEINZ) as well as a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPE).

Johns career early on included tunnel construction with the Ministry of Works, Company Engineer at Brian Perry Ltd and General Manager / Shareholder at Earthmovers and Whitehall Quarries. This led into many senior management positions within the construction industry at the Concrete and Infrastructure Group (a part of Fletcher Building). Whilst at Fletcher Building John held a number of General Management roles and eventually as the Chief Executive (Concrete and Infrastructure). He studied and obtained a Master of Business Administration at Monash University in Australia. Since then John has had a five-year term as an Environment Court Commissioner and gone on to establish a number of land development, construction and quarry companies within the Waikato. Companies such as Spartan Construction, Phoenix Civil, OceaNZ Blue, Riverlea Sand, Northgate Properties, Hinuera Natural Stone and most recently—Kotare Properties.