John Blackburn

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John is a highly experienced senior management professional with an impressive 25-year track record in sales and operational management with both large, blue chip organisations as well as smaller, entrepreneurial enterprises.

John Blackburn

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He has held board positions to managing director level and combines strong interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to plan, communicate and motivate others to execute successfully strategic sales plans across a range of business sectors.

John was most recently responsible for developing and building a new sales operation and overseeing the integration of a series of mergers and acquisitions into one business at The Danwood Group – a role which required highly developed negotiation, leadership and man-management skills along with a breadth of commercial acumen.

Background

From an initial career teaching mathematics, John soon recognized he could take certain skills, such as methodical planning, clear communication and the ability to energise others, and apply them for better gain in the commercial world. After a first role as a self-employed capital equipment sales person based in Hove, John joined the multinational and market leader Pitney Bowes where he received some of the ‘best in class’ training and development programs and quickly established himself as the top sales person nationally before being fast-tracked into sales management.

Since this thorough professional grounding John has held senior roles at Thomson Financial Plc as a UK sales manager selling ‘real-time’ analysis to the financial markets. Then, ahead of the internet boom in the late ‘90s, he was head hunted to lead a sales operation for an internet service provider to help shape them for acquisition by Cable & Wireless, where he was subsequently appointed to build and develop a new indirect channel to market, selling combined data solutions.

Specialist Disciplines

John’s key areas of expertise are;