A global expert in national security strategy, John founded Darkhorse Global to provide businesses with the key insights necessary to make the right strategic decisions to proactively manage geopolitical, geo-economic, and regulatory risk. He assists executive stakeholders and functional teams in designing and implementing innovative approaches to maximize opportunity value from M&A, transactions, and post-merger integration.

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John has significant board level experience across various industries, including roles as a Board Member, Proxyholder, and/or Trustee in the following sectors: clinical stage biotechnology, multi-brand education network, and multi-platform application development.

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Having advised on national security strategy, integration, and enforcement for M&A assignments totaling over USD 100 billion in transaction value, John performs critical evaluations that assimilate divergent information, providing transparent and meaningful interpretations to use for decision making in high-risk high-reward contexts. His work focuses on compliance strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and performance transformation across a variety of high tech and advanced-industrial subsectors, including semiconductors, biotechnology, telecommunications, robotics, and renewable energy.

John regularly advises domestic and international clients in national security reviews before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and assists clients with related regulations including the mitigation of foreign ownership, control or influence (FOCI). He provides transactional guidance by performing operational and economic impact studies, in addition to evaluating current-state and target-state corporate security models. John also advises clients on comprehensive mitigation structures, including implementation and assessment considerations that may impact national security standards or deal economics.

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John completed his PhD at Robert Morris University. His thesis, “The Feasibility of Game Theory Approaches: An Investigative Study of Threats to U.S. National Security from Foreign Investment,” describes how the United States can address the convergence of national security and economic security in a highly dynamic, technologically connected, and economically interdependent world. He received an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, and an undergraduate degree in Accounting from Juniata College.

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John completed the Senior Executives in National & International Security program at the Harvard Kennedy School. He earned the Stanford Advanced Computer Security Certificate from Stanford University, completing coursework in cybersecurity and executive strategy, cryptography, information security, emerging threats and defenses, writing secure code, and exploiting and protecting web applications. He has completed Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) trainings on cybersecurity, insider threat management, and FOCI. Further, he completed the Oxford Blockchain Strategy Program focused on how to drive innovation with blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.