About John
A former student of the college, John Park grew up in Dunfermline, attended Blacklaw Primary and Woodmill High Schools and still lives in West Fife. He began his career working for Babcock International Group as an apprentice electrician in Rosyth Royal Dockyard. John currently leads Airbnb’s public policy team in Northern Europe, after joining from Google in 2023 where he was Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy for their cloud business in the UK and Ireland. John was also Amazon's Head of Labour and Skills policy in Europe
Prior to moving into the technology sector, John spent a number of years working in the UK trade union movement as Assistant General Secretary at Community trade union and Assistant Secretary at the Scottish TUC. He also spent some time in national politics between 2007 and 2012 as a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Mid Scotland and Fife Region - holding a number of front bench positions - including shadow minister for economy and skills.
John is passionate about creating economic empowerment through skills development and employment. Throughout his career he has driven a number of employability and apprenticeships training initiatives - most notably through his work to increase apprenticeship opportunities while in the Scottish Parliament and the expansion of Amazon’s apprenticeship programme.