John earned a bachelor's degree in General Business from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, holds an MA in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska, and earned an MS in Applied Information Management from the University of Oregon in 1996. John is a Certified Internal Auditor (1974), a Certified Government Financial Manager (1996) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (2002).
He is a current member and served as the 2004 President of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers, and Treasurers (NASACT); and served as the 1999-2000 President of the National Association of State Comptrollers. John was appointed in 2007 to serve as a member of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) Board of Trustees and serving on the Executive Committee. In 2008, he was appointed to serve on the Appointments Panel for the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB).
He is a member of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the Association of Government Accountants (AGA). He was a founding officer and past board member of the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council (NECCC). He is a former trustee of the International Center for Governmental Financial Management (ICGFM). He is a past Trustee of the Academy for Government Accountability (AGA) and a past member of the National Executive Committee of the AGA. He is Past President and founding member of the Oregon State Fiscal Association (OSFA) and an associate member of the Oregon Society of CPA's.
John has made presentations and provided consulting services to organizations and governments in Europe, Central Asia, Central America, and the Middle East. John has authored articles for a variety of professional association newsletters; contributed chapters to Essays on Leadership, 21 Century Government published by the AGA, he authored Financial Trends in State Finance in the 2004 edition of The Book of the States.