Multi-Award Winning Business Executive & Transformative Product Leader
A businessman who creates enterprise value through product excellence. Twenty years building products that exceed market expectations — and the companies, teams, and commercial structures required to scale them.
The Product Lifecycle
I operate across the entire product lifecycle — cradle to grave.
Seven disciplines, fully owned.
Awards & Recognition
Insurance Technology
ACORD
Industry recognition for Central Messaging Services — an EDI transformation layer enabling real-time London Market connectivity. First recipient in company's 25+ year history.
Everest Group PEAK Matrix®
Transformed platform from unrated to Leader status in P&C Insurance Underwriting Orchestration. Fastest documented ascent in specialty insurance technology.
Automotive & IoT Innovation
BMW
Recognition for connected vehicle IoT innovation, selected by BMW's technology evaluation programme.
Business Car Magazine
Industry recognition for automotive technology innovation and advancement.
Magna International
Selected by global automotive supplier for autonomous vehicle technology contribution and sensor fusion architecture.
Global Innovation
China Innovations International
International recognition for technology innovation with global commercial application.
Business & Entrepreneurship
Grant Thornton
Selected as exemplar of dynamic business leadership driving economic growth and innovation.
NatWest
Runner-up recognition for entrepreneurial achievement and business building excellence.
Value Creation & Exits
Regardless of which side of the table — buy-side or sell-side — product excellence has ensured successful outcomes across six major strategic acquisitions. Most recently: designated most critical resource to retain by acquiring board.
Lead as Chief Product Officer of an innovative technology company from concept to capitalisation. Full entrepreneurial lifecycle — seed through venture backing to a £200m+ market valuation. Product excellence as the founding principle.
The Product Practice
The mission demands it — no great feat has ever been achieved without a group of people who share the same obsession and conviction to a cause. Operating as a servant leader means working alongside the team — not from a distance, but in the trenches where the real work happens.
The craft of excellent product leadership is sustaining this intensity throughout a long career. That requires the right culture, the right leadership, appreciation, respect, and collaboration. Above all, it requires one unwavering conviction: mission. A shared ideology that binds teams together and drives them forward.
Great product leaders are notoriously invisible to the external eye. Accolades flow to the engine room; outcomes are presented under the brand. Product leadership is the fuel that connects the two — great engineering to brand outcomes. That's the job.
Failure is not the opposite of success — it's a step towards it. The key is speed: fail fast, learn immediately, and move forwards. Every setback becomes data that informs the next iteration. This mentality builds a culture of transparency, resilience, and innovation. It underpins my approach to product development and organisational change.
Leadership exists to serve the team and the mission, not the other way around.
Visible, accountable, and operational. Not setting orders and awaiting outcomes — the power of experience is to coach, not dictate.
Bold action in the face of uncertainty. Calculated risks, not reckless ones.
The best ideas win, regardless of source. Ego has no place in execution.
Design Philosophy
Build for the unknowns. Design with variance expected. The systems that endure are those architected with flexibility at their core — anticipating how they'll be used in ways we cannot yet predict. This philosophy drives every platform decision: extensibility over rigidity, configuration over customisation, resilience over fragility.
The Seven Disciplines
Seven disciplines. One foundation: products that exceed market expectations. That's what attracts investment. That's what commands valuations. That's what enables successful exits.
01
Innovation
Innovation isn't ideation — it's the disciplined conversion of insight into commercial value. I apply structured design thinking to identify unmet market needs, prototype rapidly, validate with real users, and scale successful concepts into production. With 151 patent claims across 15 inventions, copyrights and trade secrets, my innovation capability is demonstrably prolific.
02
Rejuvenation
Legacy technology constrains business strategy. I design and execute modernisation programmes that unlock new commercial possibilities — not technology change for its own sake, but architecture decisions that enable business model evolution. Cloud migration, microservices decomposition, API-first design, technical debt remediation, and platform turnaround.
03
Growth
Product-led growth that compounds. I've led transitions from customer-centric to product-centric models — establishing product management disciplines, introducing portfolio economics, and culturally shifting teams from "order takers" to "market makers."
04
In-Life
Operational excellence converts strategy into results. I design management systems, processes, and governance frameworks that create sustainable performance improvement — including product economics disciplines, delivery methodologies (ISO 9000, DevOps, SAFe), performance management frameworks, and industry standards such as ISO 20000-1.
05
Economics
Strategic clarity separates market leaders from followers. I develop product and technology strategies that define market categories, establish competitive moats, and guide multi-year investment decisions. Market analysis, competitive positioning, roadmap development, and board alignment.
06
Investment
M&A success depends on execution, not just deal mechanics. I've operated on both sides — as seller, preparing businesses for acquisition and maximising exit value; as buyer, conducting technical and commercial due diligence to validate investment theses. Deal origination through post-merger integration.
07
Acquisitive Exit
I understand how to position a business for acquisition, what acquirers actually evaluate, and how to structure transactions that align incentives. Two successful exits. Six M&A transactions. Product excellence driving enterprise value realisation.
Technologies & Disciplines
151 patent claims across 15 inventions, copyrights and trade secrets. From hardware architecture to AI platforms — technologies I've designed, built, and brought to market. Present at the epicentre of each wave: Cloud. AI. IoT. Blockchain. Not watching from the sidelines, but architecting solutions and shipping products.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Led enterprise-scale cloud migrations from legacy on-premise to modern cloud-native architectures. Designed multi-cloud strategies, containerisation programmes, and infrastructure-as-code implementations.
AWS Azure Kubernetes TerraformDecomposed monolithic platforms into scalable microservices. API-first design principles, event-driven architectures, and domain-driven design patterns.
REST GraphQL Event SourcingAI & Machine Learning
Built graph-based AI engines for complex relationship modelling and decision intelligence. Tiered governance with exposure analytics and real-time portfolio intelligence.
Neo4j Graph ML OntologiesDesigned organisational authority mapping with multi-variable configuration. Automated routing, real-time decisioning, and explainable AI for regulated industries.
Rules Engines ML PipelinesImplemented document intelligence, entity extraction, and semantic search capabilities for enterprise knowledge management.
NLP LLMs RAGData & Analytics
High-throughput messaging infrastructure for enterprise-scale data synchronisation. Stream processing, complex event processing, and real-time analytics.
Kafka Spark FlinkExecutive dashboards, portfolio analytics, and performance monitoring systems. Democratising data access whilst maintaining governance.
Data Warehousing BI ToolsIntegration & Middleware
ACORD Vanguard Award-winning Central Messaging Services. Market-wide connectivity infrastructure for London Market real-time data exchange.
ACORD EDI API GatewayiPaaS implementations, legacy system integration, and enterprise service bus architectures. Bridging modern and heritage systems.
MuleSoft ESB iPaaSHardware & Edge Computing
Triple-stacked ASIC design for autonomous vehicle sensor fusion. Custom hardware IP for edge computing applications requiring ultra-low latency.
FPGA ASIC VerilogConnected vehicle platforms, industrial IoT deployments, and spade array camera systems for autonomous vehicles.
IoT Embedded Sensor FusionSecurity & Governance
Security-by-design architectures for regulated industries. Identity management, encryption standards, and compliance frameworks.
OAuth Zero Trust SOC 2Enterprise data governance frameworks, lineage tracking, and regulatory compliance (GDPR, data residency, right to be forgotten).
GDPR Data LineageEvidence Portfolio
Business Transformation
Transformed platform from unrated to Everest Group Leader status in 12 months. Complete repositioning from market follower to category leader.
M&A Execution
Led due diligence and execution on both buy-side and sell-side transactions. Deal structuring, valuation, integration planning, and post-merger execution.
The Practice
Lead as Chief Product Officer from concept to capitalisation. Full entrepreneurial lifecycle culminating in successful exit at £200m+ valuation.
Innovation
151 patent claims across 15 inventions, copyrights and trade secrets spanning telecommunications, IoT, autonomous vehicles, and insurance technology.
Scale
Platforms deployed at the world's largest specialty insurers. Production validation at enterprise scale across multiple continents.
Governance
Multi-billion pound portfolio responsibility. Strategic product economics, M&A advisory, and board reporting across listed and PE-backed organisations.
Testimonials & References
"John possesses a rare combination of technical knowledge and business acumen. His leadership style is collaborative and empowering; he always encourages his team to contribute ideas, fostering an environment where innovation thrives."
I had the pleasure of working closely with John Bowers during our time together at AdvantageGo, and I can confidently say that he is one of the most skilled and strategic Chief Product Officers I have encountered.
John's expertise has been pivotal in steering complex product initiatives from conception through to execution. His ability to connect product strategy with business objectives consistently delivered results that added immense value to our clients and the company.
His leadership style is collaborative and empowering; he always encourages his team to contribute ideas, fostering an environment where innovation thrives. He is also highly adaptable and continuously seeks out ways to optimise processes, making him a driving force in the ever-evolving world of product management.
Beyond his technical and strategic capabilities, John is a pleasure to work with on a personal level. His positive energy, sense of humour, and genuine care for his colleagues creates a supportive and motivating atmosphere. I wholeheartedly recommend John for any future endeavours. Any team would be lucky to have him at the helm of their product initiatives.
"What truly sets John apart is his ability to lead cross-functional teams with empathy, clarity and purpose. Any organisation would be fortunate to have him at the helm of product strategy."
John consistently demonstrates exceptional leadership, vision and a deep understanding of both the product development life cycle and the broader market landscape. As a strategic thinker John plays a vital role in shaping the product roadmap, aligning it with company goals, and ensuring that the team is always focused on delivering maximum value to customers.
John's ability to communicate complex product strategies to both internal and external stakeholders is unmatched. He has an innate talent for breaking down technical challenges in a way that makes them accessible, without losing sight of the bigger picture.
Under John's leadership the product team not only achieved key milestones but also thrived in an environment of continuous learning and improvement. Last but not least, John brings incredible energy as a leader in the product space. He is a pleasure to work with.
"John's a first class operator, who builds and implements the right processes and controls to get things moving and deliver genuinely innovative and business changing initiatives."
John's a first class operator, who builds and implements the right processes and controls to get things moving and deliver genuinely innovative and business changing initiatives. He always seems to be a few steps ahead in terms of his thinking — hoping to work together again in the future!
Industries & Domains
Get in Touch
Whether you're preparing for acquisition, navigating a turnaround, seeking board-level strategic guidance, or need hands-on transformation leadership — I'm interested in meaningful challenges at consequential organisations.
All enquiries are treated confidentially. I'll respond personally within 48 hours.
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