During his 20-year tenure, the multi-disciplinary festival has developed into one of Ireland’s best-known cultural enterprises. It is now a key event in the Irish summer and a major European festival attracting an attendance of our 400,000. In addition, he has overseen the emergence of the festival as a producer of new award-winning work in both theatre and visual arts that has toured in Ireland, Europe, The United States and Australia. John graduated from the University of Galway with a BA in Psychology, has an MA in Adult and Continuing Education from the University of Ulster and an MBS from IMI/University College Cork. John served as a member of the Irish Arts Council, has sat on the boards of a number of Irish cultural organisations and major tourism projects, chaired the Galway European Capital of Culture 2020 bid committee and is a member of the Governing Authority of the University of Galway. He is a Fellow of the Institute of the Atlantic Technological University and was conferred with an honorary doctorate by the University of Galway.