John is an ecologist and conservation biologist with more than 25 years of experience working at the science-policy interface. He has a wide range of interests and has worked nationally and internationally on biodiversity conservation, wildlife trade, plant ecology, biological invasions, the impact of genetically modified organisms and mainstreaming biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. John was Chief Director of biodiversity science and assessment at the South African National Biodiversity Institute until 2020, and has subsequently been a panel member of the Scientific & Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the GEF and is an extraordinary professor in the Dept of Plant & Soil Sciences at the Universityof Pretoria. He has been involved in the IUCN Cycad Specialist Group since 1996 and the Plant Conservation Committee siince 2001 and serves as the Chief Scientific Officer for Wild Cycad Conservancies, an NGO established to operationalise the conservation actions identified by the Cycad Specialist Group.