John began his career in live event production in 1979 as the concert chairman at California State University, Sacramento. Shortly after, he launched a small production company and began managing local bands, one of which, Steel Breeze, was signed to RCA records with John as their manager and executive producer. The band went on to support national tours for Kansas, Hall & Oates, and The Who, opening the door for John and his long career in the concert touring industry.In 1985, John was recruited by Wil Sharpe, President /CEO of legendary production company Showco Inc., to develop a sales and marketing plan for their fledgling subsidiary Vari-Lite. Over the next 7 years, Vari-Lite grew to become the largest automated lighting company in the world and firmly established automated lighting as the standard in concert touring, television, film, theaters and theme parks, creating an entirely new market.
He continued to further his career in manufacturing and sales by introducing the premier Italian manufacturer, Coemar’s automated lighting fixtures to the U.S. market. In 1996 he joined High End Systems/Flying Pig Systems as Executive Vice President, running their worldwide sales force and joining their Board of Directors until 2004. While there, John was instrumental in launching Catalyst, the first computer-based media server that integrated lighting and video into one discipline.
In a move to get back to being on the front lines of productions, in 2004 John accepted an offer to become the CEO of XL Touring Video. After four successful years, he broke off to create his own company, Chaos Visual Productions, which was acquired by PRG in 2015.
John currently resides in Northern Nevada and in his current role as Executive Vice President, Worldwide Sales, he enjoys the partnership and breadth of PRG’s world class capability to service high end clients such as Beyonce, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, and Keith Urban and oversees executive touring services for Kevin Hart, Nicki Minaj, and Ricky Martin.
