A close student of Ch�gyam Trungpa Rinpoche, John has been a student and teacher of Buddhism for 49 years. In 1970 he co-founded the Karma Dzong Meditation Center in Boulder, Colorado, serving for five years as its first co-director. He also co-founded Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, in 1973, serving as its first CEO and heading the Buddhist Studies Department there for its first five years, recently serving on its board of directors. He edited Trungpa�s Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism and The Myth of Freedom and is the author of various articles on Buddhism. After 23 years in private business, he retired in 2000. During the business period of his life he continued teaching Buddhist thought and meditation and is today a senior teacher in the North American Buddhist community, as well as an executive and life coach.