John founded JGA in 2009, after 22 years as a partner in PKF, to continue to develop his expert witness practice under his own banner and free from the constraints of a large national firm.John also retains a small and select portfolio of general practice clients, including companies, partnerships and private individuals.John practises mainly in London and the North West but receives instructions from all parts of the country.

On becoming a partner in 1986 John's initial responsibillty was to act as client engagement partner for a mixed portfolio of corporate and other clients, dealing with their needs for accounting, audit and tax services. He became head of audit in the Manchester office and remained in that position for eight years.In about 1990 the type of work he did began to change. Out of the blue he received a number of instructions to act as an expert witness. He found the work interesting and the reports he produced seemed to be well received by instructing lawyers, who came back for more. During the 1990s this became an increasingly important part of his work until, in about 1999, he substantially reduced his portfolio of general practice clients to free up more time to concentrate on developing his expert witness work.Following the White -v- White case in 2000 the proportion of John's work that came from matrimonial lawyers increased exponentially. From 2006 onwards this led to him spending increasing amounts of time in London assisting with the development of PKF's matrimonial finance work there. As a result, an increasing proportion of his work began to come from London and the South East.During 2008 John reached the conclusion that remaining with PKF, or indeed any other large national firm, was no longer compatible with his personal and professional objectives. He left PKF at the end of February 2009.During 2013 PKF became, through merger, part of the firm that is now BDO LLP.

John joined the firm which later became PKF (UK) LLP (and is now part of BDO LLP) straight from university as a graduate trainee in the Manchester office. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1980 and as a chartered tax advisor in 1981, passing all exams at the first attempt. He appeared 16th in the national order of merit in the results of the ICAEW intermediate exams.After qualifying he moved up the ranks to become a partner in 1986. During this early period he gained unusually wide hands-on experience of all aspects of the business of the accountancy profession except insolvency work.