John has worked for Connecting Youth Culture (CYC) for the past twenty years and has managed the team for the last ten.
John's background is in television, he studied in Newcastle and after gaining his qualification in TV Production moved to London and worked in the TV industry as part of the editing team at a production company in Islington. Programmes that he worked on included Desmond's, a comedy set in a barbershop and the O-Zone for Children's BBC. John then moved back north and set up his own video production company working with many corporate clients and also filming weddings as a side line. He then became a video artist for a new organisation within NYCC called CYC and has work with disadvantaged and vulnerable young people on hundreds of projects over the years. John is passionate about how the arts have a positive impact on young people's lives and has seen the results of this many times.
John and his wife are also foster carers and have fostered children and young people over the last three years including two teenagers from Iran.