John’s work experience is broad and deep; he worked at a Fortune 500 company, ran and sold a family business, built his own import and export firms and created his own consultancy. That gives him a few decades of experience that he brings every day to investment banking clients. Acquisitions and divestitures have always been part of the strategy and negotiating has been a key skill.

Prior to Diamond, John was President of Independent Retailers Syndicate; Head of M&A at Wolf Popper, Inc.; and, for 20 years President of Growth Resources Group, a strategic and financial advisor to small and medium size businesses in fields from Media and Publishing, Consumer Goods, Food and Internet Retailing to Healthcare and Business Services.

He has been an advisor to scores of retail companies worldwide including Wal-Mart, House of Fraser, Galleries Lafayette, Myers Grace, Lane Crawford and El Palacio de Hierro. John was a director at Extebank (now Capital One) serving on the audit and investment committees for 12 years. More recently, John has assisted in the establishment of the Hudson Valley Startup Fund, which is developing a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem between NYC and Albany.

John was educated at Brown University and the Stern School of Business, and he has lectured at Columbia and other local colleges.

John loves music, golf and college basketball. He enjoys trap and skeet, is a Lifetime Member of the Sierra Club, a longtime supporter of the New York Botanical Garden and the Metropolitan Museum and is a not too serious photographer.