The man behind the work.
Sir John is a keynote speaker, certified mediator, and family and life coach with over 30 years of lived and professional experience. His work is grounded in a single conviction: People First. Always.
This is his story.
"The most important work any of us will ever do is the work we do at home."
Sir John
It started long before the stage.
Sir John did not set out to become a speaker. He set out, as most of us do, trying to make sense of life, work, family, and purpose. What he found along the way, across 27 years in formal employment spanning diplomacy, public ministry, motors, and insurance, was that the one skill that mattered in every single context was the ability to sit with a person and genuinely understand what they needed.
That is not a common skill. Most people are too busy talking to listen, too busy managing to lead, too busy fixing to understand. Sir John built his career on noticing the difference.
In the automotive and insurance sectors, he became a top-performing sales professional and team leader. Not because he was the loudest voice in the room, but because he was the most curious. He was the one who asked why before he asked what. That habit, asking why first, became the foundation of everything that would follow.
Where the real work began.
In 2008, Sir John and his wife Stacy co-founded a parenting ministry that would become one of the most significant chapters of his career. Not because of the scale, though over 1,600 Kenyan families have since walked through their 11-week programme, but because of what it demanded of him personally.
To walk a parent through the hardest seasons of raising a child, you have to have done your own honest work first. To help a couple rediscover what holds a marriage together, you have to understand what tears it apart. Sir John brings that honest, earned perspective to everything he does.
That breadth of sector experience matters. Sir John has worked inside diplomacy, public ministry, automotive, insurance, education, and faith communities. He understands the pressures of a boardroom and the silence of a struggling marriage. That range is precisely why he resonates with audiences from Nairobi to London to Houston. He does not arrive with a generic programme. He arrives having lived in the rooms his audience is sitting in.
He went on to become a Certified Professional Mediator, train in Expressive Arts and Music Therapy, serve on school boards and governance bodies, and author four books on ministry, parenting, personal growth, and resilience.
30 years. One thread.
The careers have changed. The conviction never has.
Diplomatic & Ministry Service
Began his career in formal public service, diplomacy and ministry, developing the listening, negotiation, and human relations skills that would define everything that followed.
Motors & Insurance
Transitioned through corporate Kenya, spending years in the automotive and insurance sectors. Here he became a top-performing sales leader and team builder, and discovered his gift for growing people.
Parenting Ministry Founded
Co-founded the parenting ministry with his wife Stacy, beginning a 16-year journey of walking Kenyan families through the most important work they would ever do. Over 1,600 families have completed the programme.
Pins to Planes Group
Founded Pins to Planes Group, an insurance and property management company, while simultaneously deepening his work in speaking, coaching, and mediation. Two tracks, one conviction: build things that last.
Author, Speaker, Coach
Four published books. Keynote engagements across corporates, conferences, schools, and faith communities. A growing international footprint with clients and audiences in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and the Kenyan diaspora.
The credentials behind the conviction.
Sir John's formal training and qualifications are in service of one thing, the quality of attention he brings to every person he works with.
Certified Professional Mediator
Certified through DCRI (Dispute & Conflict Resolution International), affiliated with Eckerd College, California. Over a decade of practice in family, workplace, and community contexts.
Expressive Arts Practitioner
Trained in the use of creative and expressive arts as therapeutic tools for personal development and healing.
Music Therapy Trained
Applied in coaching and group facilitation to access emotion, shift energy, and open conversations.
Corporate Trainer & Facilitator
Over two decades designing and delivering programmes for corporates, schools, churches, and community organisations.
School Board Member
Served on school boards, bringing a people-first governance lens to institutional leadership.
Governance Chair
Chaired oversight bodies across the charitable and social sectors in Kenya.
Affiliated Institutions
Dispute & Conflict Resolution International
Eckerd College, California
Four books. One message.
Sir John has authored four books on ministry, parenting, personal growth, and resilience, practical, honest resources for families and individuals who are ready to do the real work, not just read about it.
They are drawn directly from the same frameworks and conversations that have shaped thousands of coaching sessions, parenting programmes, and speaking engagements. Not theory, field notes from 30 years in the room with real people and real challenges.
My Life in the Ministry
Sir John's first book, a candid account of his journey in ministry and the lessons that shaped his life's work.
The 4Ps of Parenting & The 5th P
A culmination of talks delivered to thousands of parents. Presence, Provision, Protection, and Praise, plus Purpose, the fifth P that ties them all together.
The 5th 'P' Expanded
A deeper exploration of the fifth P, going further into Purpose, the principle at the heart of intentional parenting.
Do Not H.A.L.T
A guide to self-love and resilience. Sir John's call to never stop in life's difficult moments, drawing on faith and lived experience.
Foreword endorsements
"I highly recommend this book as a valuable guide to shape your life as a parent and to significantly impact the life of your child."
Anzaya Akatsa
Co-author of U-Turn, Zindua, and Tamati. Foreword to The 4Ps of Parenting.
"This book will encourage, educate, and entrust to you key principles of parenting that help you enjoy parenting."
Rev. Ambrose Nyangao
Senior Pastor, Parklands Baptist Church, Nairobi. Foreword to The 4Ps of Parenting.
What he actually believes.
The home is the highest-stakes environment a human being will ever operate in.
Not the boardroom. Not the stage. The dining table. The school run. The 11pm conversation that sets the tone for the next decade of a child's life. Sir John has built his entire career on that conviction.
Transformation does not come from information. It comes from honest attention.
Most programmes give people more to think about. Sir John's work is about sitting with a person, really sitting with them, until we can see what is actually in the way. That is a different kind of work.
People perform when they feel seen, not just managed.
Whether he is speaking to a team of 500 or coaching one couple, the principle is the same. Human beings respond to genuine understanding. The skills, the frameworks, the programmes, they all work better when people feel that they matter.
Wherever you are pinned, you were built to fly.
Not a motivational slogan. A worked-out, earned conviction. Sir John has seen it proven too many times to doubt it. The question is never whether you can. The question is what is still holding you down.
Ready to work together?
Whether you want to invite Sir John to speak, begin a coaching journey, or bring his programme to your organisation, the next step is a conversation.