John was a Director of Catalyst from 1995 to 2016. He was the author of The Lean Six Sigma Improvement Journey and Go Lean, and the co-author of Lean Six Sigma for Dummies and SPC in the Office. John was also the author of several ‘in-house’ books that have been tailored for organisations including General Electric, BT, O2, Saint Gobain Glass, London Underground and BAA. John also jointly headed up The Lean Six Sigma Academy on behalf of The British Quality Foundation. John specialised in making technical topics simple to understand for people at all levels in an organisation, enabling them to improve performance by applying the right Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques in the right way. In particular, he sought to help Managers understand that their role is to work on processes, with the people in the processes, to find ways of improving these processes and the way they work. A Chartered Insurer and Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute, John’s early career background was in Aviation Insurance and Reinsurance. He first started to apply both Lean and Six Sigma techniques in his role as Customer Service Director for a North American Financial Services organisation, before joining Catalyst. His experience led to him being interviewed by the BBC about the potential of Lean and Six Sigma in the UK, especially in the Public Sector. John sadly passed away on Sunday 14th February 2016. He is sadly missed by his family and all of us. He was one of the original “Catalysts” and remains an inspiration to us now and in our future work. Friends and colleagues of John may wish to make a donation his Just Giving page which is raising money for Pancreatic Research Fund, a charity dedicated to defeating pancreatic cancer by funding innovative research.