John took up appointment as Director of Research and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Stirling in January 2006.  Previously he worked at the University of Manchester, where he was involved in the 2004 merger between UMIST and the Victoria of Manchester.  At Manchester, John also had responsibility for student recruitment and admissions, international recruitment and relations, public relations and research and graduate support.  He was Head of the Research Office in the new University of Manchester prior to joining Stirling.

John was the manager of the national 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, working on behalf of the four UK higher education funding bodies, based at the Higher Education Funding Council for England in Bristol and London.  His earlier career was spent at the University of Aberdeen, in strategic planning, faculty management and student administration roles.

John has worked extensively on international higher education management and development projects, and is a regular conference and workshop presenter in the UK and overseas on research policy and management and wider higher education issues.