But for his time in the US Navy, John is a lifelong resident of Central Pennsylvania. He currently works in the health care industry and is actively involved with several nonprofit initiatives. Prior to his current role, John held several varied positions: he was COO and part of a team which started commercial real estate brokerage Lee & Associates of Eastern Pennsylvania; was the President and an owner of Sutliff Chevrolet; served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for a local health plan; and was an associate at a large law firm. A graduate of Leadership Harrisburg Area, he has been a member of several nonprofit boards of directors over the last 30 years.

John attributes his ability to move from one job to a seemingly unrelated one to what he learned while serving as a Supply Corps Officer. After earning an NROTC Scholarship, he spent six months at the Navy Supply Corps School in Athens, Ga and was then assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), where he held a variety of Division Officer roles over the next few years as the ship traveled literally around the world. During his relatively brief time in the Navy, he learned that that his best path was to focus on the mission, take care of your people and help the subject matter experts with whom he worked do what they were trained to do.