John Blackford

John Blackford has been an enthusiastic supporter and advisor to Cirtronics for over 30 years, beginning when there were just 20 employees and the majority of business was manually-assembled printed circuit boards.

John has an engineering degree from Purdue, is a veteran of the Air Force, and has a degree in business from Harvard. He came to New Hampshire in the mid 1950s to help start a company that designed and manufactured sawmill machinery. He was involved in product development, manufacturing operations, and finance before becoming the CEO and major stockholder. Over 26 years the company grew to 100 employees, before being sold in the early 1980s.

John brought his experience and expertise to management consulting, focusing on CEOs of small owner-managed manufacturing companies in the Northeast. Over the next 20 years he served over 50 clients. Much of his work has involved long term multi-year relationships, as with Cirtronics. He has also been involved in many state-wide non-profit organizations, serving on multiple Boards of Trustees, and in several instances serving as Chair.