John has worked in the IT sector since 1994 and has been fanatical about retail since then.

After studying Biology and Computer Science, John spent the first four years of his career working for VIAMET, an IBM Global Services Company. Almost immediately afterwards he was given the opportunity to assist in the development of a cash register and shop computerisation package - and, with only a few exceptions, he has remained in the thick of things in the retail sector ever since. He has worked as a software developer, given demonstrations, been a project and team leader and worked as a software process improvement manager.

In 1998 John joined SAP Retail Solutions Nederland in order to devote his full energies to the retail sector, and followed an extensive SAP training programme to prepare for this new challenge. In 2000, he and Ingo Land together established Sapito. His first SAP assignment was a major implementation project for various chains of specialist shops, in which he acted as a software development project manager. In subsequent projects John also acted as functional consultant and team leader/project manager in areas such as sales, pricing, purchasing, stock replenishment, WMS, EDI interfaces, Idoc interfaces, interfaces between SAP and cash registers, SAP upgrades and follow-up service following the implementation of SAP projects. He undertook this work in various sectors, such as fashion, durable goods, department stores, telecoms, supermarkets and drugstores.

Between 2002 and 2004 he was an SAP product manager for an SAP partner in Barcelona, specialising in chain stores. He managed the new team and trained it in SAP Retail, following which a template was developed for drugstores and supermarkets. That template is now being successfully rolled out.

Clients and colleagues say that John makes an impression because he is calm, works systematically and has an eye for the requirements of users. He is constantly engaged in improving working procedures, while keeping his knowledge up-to-date by regularly following courses and attending conferences in the areas of retail, ECR, EDI, technology management and ITIL.