John Welford graduated from Sheffield University with a masters in Electronic, Systems and Control Engineering and spent a number of years working in the defence industry as a systems engineer and algorithm researcher. John then returned to academia at Manchester University where he completed a PhD in mechatronics. This was funded by the automotive industry and resulted in a thesis proposing novel actuator modelling and design methodologies. He currently works in the rail industry where he is exercising his cross-domain systems engineering skills on system architectures and systems engineering toolset developments for WSP.

John is a chartered engineer and a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).