Previously Strategy Director at Scottish Enterprise and a director of EDAW consultants (now AECOM), John Lord founded yellow book in 1998. The company specialises in regeneration, economic development and placemaking and has worked for public and private sector clients throughout the UK & Ireland and in the EU.

Since 2018, John Lord has acted as a consultant to Sunderland City Council, supporting the development of the city centre strategy, the Riverside Sunderland Masterplan and strategic cases for funding bids. He is the co-author (with Professor Brian Evans) of two editions of Scotland’s Urban Age and the 2023 report of the Glasgow Place Commission.  John was the principal author of the NewcastleGateshead 1PLAN and other major reports include a study (for Scottish Enterprise) on the economic performance of medium-sized cities in Europe, and Sheffield: City of Rivers. yellow book carried out two highly regarded research studies for the Scottish Government, on Barriers to Community Engagement in Planning, and Monitoring the Outcomes of Planning.

Between 2018 and 2023, John was a member of Historic England’s Historic Places Panel. He is the co-author (with Jem Southam) of The Floating Harbour: a landscape history of Bristol City Docks, published by Redcliffe Press.