About John Whitworth
After studying Engineering, John spent the early part of his career in capital equipment sales with international machinery manufacturers supplying the Petrochemical, Oil & Gas, and Power generation industries.
Following the acquisition by General Electric of the filtration company he was then working for, John transitioned into Product Management in 2008. It was at this point he ‘stumbled' across the world of export controls. Learning fast though necessity, he was tasked with resolving an oversight in the company’s compliance to the UK military export control regulations.
With that issue successfully concluded through the submission of a voluntary disclosure, John’s curiosity for the subject prompted him to take an opportunity with full time responsibility for export controls and sanctions compliance.
Further Experience
Ten years later John left General Electric to join a leading Consulting practice in London which gave him the opportunity to expand his experience through working with clients in the Aerospace, Electronics and Chemical sectors, among others.
John then set up M J Trade Advisory to support businesses requiring assistance in this field directly.
John's Core Expertise
Based on this variety of experiences John has developed a broad appreciation of the different jurisdictions around the world with an emphasis on US, UK, and European legislation.
Within this framework, John’s core expertise includes international sanctions measures, export controls classification, export licencing requirements, transactional screening, policy and procedure creation, M&A due diligence, training programmes, audits, investigations and voluntary disclosure procedure.
Other assignments
Following the establishment of his own business in 2022 John was approached by Jaguar Land Rover to provide maternity cover for the position of Group Head of Export Controls and Sanctions Compliance. That assignment was completed in December 2023.
John is a member of the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade (CIOE), as well as the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists (ACSS) and speaks at conferences and other events on the subject matter.
