John is a Founding Director of Marsden Jacob Associates and an eminent Australian economist. He is available for specialist consultancies and remains active in Marsden Jacob Associates through his Board role.

John retired from full-time consulting in 2017. He has extensive experience advising on economic regulation, governance, pricing, property rights and environmental and natural resource economics. He has particular skills in the areas of:

• Regulation and pricing and their application to the water and telecommunications sector
• Risk and cost of capital
• Policy and market development including property right and entitlement definition
• Governance and institutional arrangements for utility and natural resource management

John worked at the forefront of economic and structural reform during his 30 year consulting career. Among other projects in his consulting career he led the critical legislative review, which led to the ending of the dual monopoly gaming licences in Victoria previously held by Tattersalls and TAB; co-developed the blueprint for the privatisation, governance and regulation of irrigation areas and districts in NSW and Western Australia; supported the design of contractual/governance arrangements to restore sustainable resource use and management in NSW irrigation regions; and co-developed the Ord Stage II Business Case for the WA Government.

He is a former officer of the Treasury and an Assistant Commissioner with the Industries Assistance Commission. His international experience in industry policy includes work with the UNIDO and the World Bank. In 1983 he was seconded to Shell Australia as Chief Economist and served on APEA’s Taskforce on the Resource Rent Tax. Between 1983 and 1987 he served on the Business Council of Australia’s Economics Committee.

John’s experience in capital markets and banking includes Capel Court/National Mutual Royal Bank (1984-87) as Chief Economist and the Australian Bankers’ Association as Director Research (1987-90) where he dealt with the extension of prudential supervision arrangements to risk weighted capital adequacy and the reform of the bank clearing system.

John has substantial experience as an economic commentator. During 1990-1993 he was economic columnist with Business Age. Between 1993 and 2000 he was the Economic Adviser and spokesman for Yellow Pages Australia on their Small Business Index and associated research.

Between 1997 and 2004 he chaired the Melbourne Economic Panel associated with the Reserve Bank. He is a former president of Community Aid Abroad, Canberra