Born and raised in a northern suburb of Indianapolis, John is 100% corn-fed Indiana with a special love for the rolling hills and flat farmland of Hamilton County. Few places in the world can beat the simple joys of riding the back roads of farm country. But, itchy feet and a fascination with geopolitics led him off to Jerusalem, just as the Internet revolution was sweeping the world. It was the perfect moment for a writer with an MBA and a background in computer technology.
John’s first gig was in the financial services industry, writing marketing communications for a boutique investment company based in Jerusalem. After a couple of years explaining price-to-earnings ratios and the Hang Seng index, he went on to write for a Texas-based computer company in Tel Aviv. He’d almost burned out on technical documents for OS/390, when he found himself abruptly working for a San Francisco-based software company in Jerusalem. (He picked up a phone in Tel Aviv on Thursday and found himself on the Embarcadero on Tuesday.) Then the dot-com bubble burst, and he was downsized to a small Colorado-based company in Kfar Saba, followed by a tiny New York-based company in Jerusalem.
After a short contract with Eli Lilly, John wrote user guides and technical specifications for the Indiana Department of Child Services from 2008 until the end of 2009.
Then those itchy feet came back, dragging him off to Taiwan – teaching advanced English, producing great documentation and writing about the terrible state of modern geopolitics. The great thing about working from the southern part of an island off the coast of China? He’s completed a full day’s work by the time most Americans stumble into the office.
Right now, he works out of his office in Tainan, not all that far from TSMC. But, wherever he is in the world, he’s always in easy reach:
John spent a lot of time, bouncing around Europe and Asia. Give him half a chance, and he’ll tell you all about it.
And an MBA? Oh yeah, he has one of those too. From a good school. Over 30 years ago. The world has changed a bit since then.
Now, if John can get back to writing in the first person, he’d appreciate it.