John Wood served more than 25 years in the Engineering and Product Planning Department at General Motors of Canada in Oshawa, Ontario, in a variety of technology and R&D management roles. More recently, he consulted with Toyota Canada in the area of government affairs.

His professional experiences have included vehicle testing, various systems design roles, vehicle planning, the management of cross-platform technologies and technology planning, and R&D management. John has served on a number of research and innovation related committees in Canada, including within NSERC, the AUTO21 NCE, the CAPC Innovation Working Group and the Innovation Council of the Conference Board of Canada.

John joined the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council in early April of 2009, and is the new Executive Director of the Project Office of Automotive Partnership Canada (APC), located in Mississauga, Ontario.