John started working with GNU Press and the Free Software Foundation in 2003 and then became the FSF's first Campaigns Manager, working on outreach efforts like Defective by Design, BadVista, and PlayOgg. In 2011, John became the Executive Director after four years as Manager of Operations.

His background is mainly in the humanities, with an MFA in Writing and Poetics and a BA in Philosophy, but he has been spending too much time with computers and online communities since the days of the Commodore 64. He's become a dedicated GNU Emacs user after first trying it around 1996, and contributes code to several of its extensions.

He has been speaking regularly at free software events since 2004, including keynotes at the Libre Software World Meeting, Open World Forum, and LibrePlanet.

Prior to the FSF, John worked as a college debate team instructor for both Harvard and Michigan State University.

John Sullivan presents 2 Events:

• The business case for copyleft at LinuxFest Northwest 2018

• "Just don't buy it" at LinuxFest Northwest 2019