Founder
Fortune 500 Intrapreneur. COO/CTO. Portfolio Board Member. Partnership Strategist. Cyberneticist.
Renewable energy, telecommunications, media, defence
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Liberty Global - MD, Emerging Businesses; MD Advanced Advertising & Data, VP Operations Asia Pacific
Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia, CTO
Australia Broadcasting Corporation, COO - Australia Network
Trident Media Partners, Founder and Managing Partner (Acquired)
AUSTAR, GM Digital Services.
Australis Media, Early contributing architect of Australia’s PayTV Sector. GM Operations, GM Ethnic Channels
Royal Australian Navy and U.S. Army, Information Effects and Combat Arms Officer
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Advisory
MassiveBlue.io - building and deploying AI tools that enhance enforcement, protect identities, secure digital rights, and support ethical innovation
Adgile Media (Australia) - provides Definitive TV Ad Measurement that results in currency grade impression verification, attention tracking and outcome optimisation
Ad Curatio - A unified platform transforming national TV advertising by linking advertisers, programmers, and distributors
MinusOneDB - fully hosted platform tailored for advanced data applications, including seamlessly integrating real-time and batch data workflows
Past Board seats
AUSTAR-Optus-Foxtel Playout JV
SANZAR (South Africa, NZ, Australia Rugby)
SFCC (Societe du Cable et Communication)
Freeview (Australia)
SambaTV
Board Advisor - Australian Broadcast Corporation
Charity
Board Member - Street Child USA: Operating through local partnerships in 25 countries to keep more than one million children in school and learning.
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American University, BS Business Administration, Financial Management
Royal Australian Naval College (Dux)
University College London, MS in Digital Anthropology (Cybernetics)
Seasoned TMT executive with a track record of successfully building and operating emerging media and B2C telco, advisory and data businesses.
John’s diverse 30-year career across the U.S., Europe and Australasia has included C-suite and Board roles advising small-mid cap companies, with two IPOs and one exit. His wide-ranging expertise includes strategic technology partnering, industry collaborations, product development, digital transformation, advanced consumer and network technologies, advertising, and consumer AI & data.
Prior to establishing Loatis, John spent 10 years in London driving new revenue at Liberty Global via Liberty Sandbox incubation hub and a European Ad and Data business with Broadcast partners. John was previously CTO at Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Australia, COO at Australian Broadcasting Corporation International (ABC), and VP of Asia Pacific for United GlobalCom (now Liberty Global).
He currently serves as an advisor for Adgile, Ad Curatio, Kora, Bamboo BioProducts, Lux Digital, and MassiveBlue.io, and is a Board member of Street Child USA, a charity focused on operating through local partnerships in 25 countries to keep more than one million children in school and learning.
The increasingly significant role of AI in John’s work at Liberty led to a deep interest in cybernetics, the interdisciplinary human/machine science that laid the groundwork for many of AI’s core ideas. In 2025, he earned an MSc in Digital Anthropology (Cybernetics) from University College London and guest lectures on AI’s relationship with legacy business.
John recently exited from a 20-year Defense Reserves career in Combat Arms (US Army AR) and Information Effects (Royal Australian Navy).
Leading voices on alternative leadership, consumer data and disruptive tech to drive infrastructure growth
Dynamic speakers who connect with audiences across size and sector - transforming challenges into growth.
His focus now is to help leaders understand how to unlock new capabilities and revenue by approaching data, disruptive technology and AI challenges through the holistic lens of cybernetics. John translates complex concepts into clear and actionable strategies, delivering insights that educate, motivate and drive real results.
Though leadership:
C-suite decision making for emerging tech
Leadership, investment and partnering approaches to AI
Cybernetics and evolving human-machine relationships in leadership
Enabling data-driven revenue streams
Inorganic investment in infrastructure and emerging tech
How to foster industry-wide collaborations
Approaches to monetize disruptive technology in legacy businesses
Why a Cybernetic Approach Is Critical for Modern Value Creation
Cybernetics is the science of control and communication in complex systems such as computers, the human body, ecological systems, information systems, government, and human cultures.
The interdisciplinary field focuses on how systems achieve goals, regulate themselves, and adapt to changing environments through feedback mechanisms. Combining the practices of engineering and social sciences delivers more profitable and sustainable outcomes. AI and related LLM’s are inherently human and cultural - so a cybernetic approach to consumer data, for example, ensures that the law of unintended consequences is reduced and outcomes are more immediately bankable.
The Australian National University has been pivotal in reactivating cybernetics at their Cybernetic Institute. Read more below.
