Meet the team

Bringing a wealth of experience from diverse educational, professional, and coaching backgrounds, I currently contribute my expertise to the Douglas College Training Group, drawing insights from various leadership roles held throughout my career.

Having owned a business and served as a Junior A Hockey Coach and Executive, I have honed my approach to accountability, leadership, and communication. Guiding elite-level hockey teams, I recognize the pivotal role effective leadership plays in achieving results. Notably, I was part of a team that clinched the National Junior A Championship in 2006, emphasizing the significance of personal accountability, heightened leadership, and effective communication in attaining success. This experience underscored the importance of prioritizing team goals over personal objectives and viewing potential change as an opportunity rather than a threat.

My professional journey, spanning executive sales, marketing, business planning, and compliance training in the real estate and mortgage finance sector, has contributed to my understanding of the value of coaching and training in fostering business and personal success. Moreover, my involvement in the commercial real estate sector, along with roles in retail leasing and store development for a prominent Canadian franchise operator, underscored the impact of simplifying processes to achieve superior outcomes.

My educational background includes a B.A. in Business & Enterprise from Edinburgh Napier University, an M.S.M. in Management from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, and graduate certificates specializing in Leadership and Value Chain Management.
 

John Harrison is a skilled Sales and Management Professional with over 30 years of leadership experience across a wide variety of industries. John has been involved with several chain restaurants such as The Keg Restaurants (Canada & Australia), Earl’s Restaurants, Cactus Club Café and the Hog’s Breath Café (Australia). He has also served in management roles within several multinational corporations such as Grant Thornton, Aegis Investment Management, South Pacific Hotel Group and Dynamark Security Systems, while opening several different venues across Canada, the United States, Australia & China.

John is an accomplished instructional designer and trainer having created and facilitated workshops and training solutions for a wide variety of organizations, across many different sectors including the Vancouver School Board, the BC Safety Authority, the Surrey Board of Trade, the Ismaili Business Council of BC, SAAB Technologies and the Women & Children’s Hope Foundation… to name just a few. 

Currently, John is serving as a Community and Contract Services Programmer with the Training Group at Douglas College managing several employment and workplace-training projects including the Peter Legge Institute for Sales Excellence.