John graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Bachelors and Masters in Accounting. Before joining Mathers, John started his career working in International Tax at PricewaterhouseCoopers for six years. John developed interest in helping clients navigate complex constantly changing tax landscapes that business owners face by watching one of his close friends start a new dental practice from scratch. John is now focused on consistently learning and growing his ability to provide insights and uncover hidden value, both tax related and business management, to his clients.

John is naturally wired to process numbers extremely well as his Grandfather was a math teacher and enjoys drawing a clear picture of business story/performance from financial statements. John learned the benefit of hard work, persistence, and consistency from playing soccer and from the experience of moving from South Korea to the States when he turned 13. John and his wife, Julia, have two young girls (three and one) and live in Northbrook IL.

When John is not working, he loves to play soccer and pickleball after putting kids to bed. John enjoys spending his weekends taking his girls to the playground, swimming pool, and the Botanic Garden. John can't wait for his kids to be old/good enough to be his pickleball partner and/or opponent. John likes to sing K-Pop when he drives or really at any opportunity. John takes pleasure in reading books and listening to podcasts on topics related to personal finance and value investing.