John and his wife, Lilia, are snowbirds, living in Miami Beach in the winter and on Holly Pond, Stamford, in the summer. They have four children living in Barcelona, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Stamford respectively, and four grandchildren with a fifth on the way.
John was born just outside Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. He graduated from Trinity Hall College, Cambridge University, with an MA in Natural Sciences, and joined Consolidated Gold Fields plc in the City of London as a management trainee. In 1978, he was seconded as a financial analyst to CGF’s steel distribution subsidiary, Azcon, which was headquartered in New York. After 18 months, he transferred to the US permanently, obtained a green card and joined The BOC Group in Montvale, NJ as Planning Manager. He moved to Wilton in 1987 after being recruited by a GE Capital-backed private equity group and later to Darien. His final career move came in 1995 when he joined and subsequently ran a boutique investment bank, Cambridge International Partners, in New York City advising on the purchase and sale of asset managers and Registered Investment Advisors. He retired in 2019, happy to give up the commute.
John is an enthusiastic, if amateur, golfer and sailor. He is also Vice Chairman of The Facial Pain Association whose mission is to provide support, education and advocacy for those with neuropathic facial pain.