A career spent taking products from first concept to high-volume production, and then building the teams and businesses behind them.
Manufacturing & supply chain
John has spent more than 30 years developing products with overseas manufacturing partners, especially in Asia. He has worked with large manufacturers such as Foxconn, Inventec, Foxlink and Luxshare, which he currently advises, as well as small, specialized suppliers, across OEM, ODM and JDM models.
Understanding the manufacturing technology, the process and the cultural nuances lets him bridge product brand companies and their manufacturing supply chains, from tooling and supplier development through production ramp, cost, quality and sustaining.
Trimble Navigation · 1985–1992 · Mechanical Engineering Manager
TrimPack
Mechanical engineering design of the TrimPack, a rugged handheld military GPS receiver recognized as a Key Technology for Desert Storm. Also developed enclosure and antenna designs for Trimble’s early GPS survey and timing products.
Trimble Navigation
Ensign and Scout GPS
Led the engineering team for Trimble’s mass-market consumer GPS products: the Ensign GPS (1992) and its successor, the Scout GPS (shown, 1997), along with auto navigation systems developed with Pioneer Electronics.
Apple · 1992–1993 · Product Designer
Newton MessagePad
Developed the mechanical architecture for the tablet-size Newton personal digital assistant, brought in outside engineering consultants, and worked with Inventec, Apple’s manufacturing partner in Asia, on tooling and manufacturing development.
Apple Newton Division · 1995–1998 · Senior Product Designer
eMate 300
Developed the mechanical architecture and design of the eMate 300, Apple’s first product to fully use translucent plastic, coordinating Apple’s internal teams with external engineering and manufacturing partners, including Inventec.
Apple CEO Technical Award; design awards from BusinessWeek (IDEA Silver), D&AD, I.D. Magazine and iF; permanent collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Think Outside, Inc. · 1998–2004 · Co-founder & VP Engineering
Stowaway folding keyboard
Co-created the Stowaway and built a highly leveraged development and manufacturing model: a small core team working with Asian OEM, ODM and supplier partners.
$42 million in first-year revenue, more than 3 million units over the company’s life, and over $100 million in revenue. Permanent collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Lucesco Lighting · 2004–2005 · VP Engineering & Operations
Halley LED lamp
Led engineering and operations for the Halley lamp, designed by Richard Sapper: LED thermal management, a counterbalanced arm, and OEM/JDM and supplier relationships across the US, Asia and Europe. Neocon Gold Award; cover of Metropolis, April 2005.
Apple · 2005–2008 · Senior Engineering Program Manager
First-generation iPhone accessories
Managed development of key accessories for the original iPhone, including the Bluetooth headset and docking systems, with manufacturing partners Foxconn and Foxlink. Led a cross-functional team spanning engineering, business operations, global supply management and operations.
Shown: a figure from U.S. Patent 8,090,132, “Wireless communication headset with wired and wireless modes,” on which John is named as an inventor.
Palm · 2008–2010 · Senior Director, Accessories Engineering
Touchstone
Revitalized Palm’s accessories group and led development of the Touchstone inductive charging system for the Palm Pre, Engadget’s Editor’s Choice Peripheral of the Year (2009). Also responsible for retail packaging for accessories and handsets.
Butterfly Network · 2018–2022
Butterfly iQ
Started with responsibility for manufacturing and supply chain: built a lean manufacturing organization and ramped manufacturing and supply chain to 5x capacity in under a year.
Later led hardware engineering, transducer engineering, failure analysis, and sustaining and reliability engineering, and managed JDM, accessory and sustaining supply chain activities across Asia.
CLIQ Products · 2022–2025 · CEO
CLIQ portable chairs and outdoor gear
Went from product consultant to CTO to CEO, transforming CLIQ from a single-product brand into a portfolio of chairs, soft goods and storage at about $10M a year in revenue. Responsible for product, financial and commercial strategy.
Other roles
HP · 1983–1985
Lead mechanical engineer on a modular manufacturing test system for General Motors. Took it into manufacture and supported plant installation; its success helped launch a new HP division.
MicroUnity · 1993–1995
Product Design Manager: system design and manufacturing process for an ultra-high-bandwidth multimedia computer.
Cobalt · 1998
Enclosure design for the Cobalt Qube microserver, coordinating consultants and Asian suppliers for design and manufacture.
Amazon Lab126 · 2010–2012
Director, Accessories Hardware. Built the accessories hardware team and set strategy across distribution, manufacturing and sourcing options, working with Foxconn.
Sonos · 2012–2018
Senior Director, Mechanical Engineering. Led mechanical design for all Sonos products and scaled a global organization, including its supply chain relationships and processes.
Recent advisory work
Through Think Outside LLC, 2021 to present:
Backbone · CMAT · EyeZense · Ho Dental · Luxshare · Megaforce · Wrensilva
