At Sainsbury’s, John advises the Operating Board on the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ colleagues and customers. He also led Sainsbury’s sponsorship of the ‘Sparkle Weekend’ event organized by Sparkle, a national trans charity. In addition, he mentors LGBTQ+ talent, and during LGBTQ+ History Month, interviewed Gareth Thomas in a company-wide broadcast as part of Sainsbury’s largest-ever history month event. In 2022, Sainsbury’s renewed their annual financial support for ‘akt,’ the LGBT+ youth homeless charity, for the third year. He was a Pride Month keynote speaker at three external events and a main stage speaker at Wembley stadium for ‘Diversity & Inclusion in Grocery’ in 2021. John established a small non-profit in a personal capacity, ‘1 Million Trans Allies,’ that calls out transphobia, creates safer discussion spaces online, learns from the lived experiences of trans people, and raises the profile of allyship.
