John is the founder of Vita, an Ireland-based civil society organization bringing 20 years’ experience in delivering sustainable livelihoods to rural farms in East Africa. Coming from a financial background, John has been providing investment advisory services while representing HSBC in Eritrea in the 1990s. After spending a number of years in the country, John moved back to Ireland to establish Vita, the social development organization in Eritrea and Ethiopia, and since 2008 has also been involved in initiatiation of new development models including the Green Impact Fund and Irish Potato Coalition. John also worked with UNDP Eritrea as an external expert to devise the study into Danakali’s social impact credentials which was published in January 2019.