Dr John Wilkinson was born in Durban, South Africa, where he completed BSc and BCom degrees at University of Natal. He later completed an MBA at University of Adelaide and a PhD at University of South Australia (UniSA). He also completed a Graduate Certificate in Education at UniSA.
John was Associate Professor of Marketing and Head of Discipline-Marketing at Australian Institute of Business (AIB) from January 2017 to March 2019. At AIB, the focus of his teaching (and that of his staff within the Marketing discipline) was on a marketing specialisation within an online MBA program. John previously worked at UniSA (until December 2016), holding positions of Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Program Director and Associate Head-School of Marketing. He also was a Research Associate in the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science.  He taught marketing courses in MBA programs in Australia and Malaysia, as well as undergraduate courses in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. He also taught within the Master of Marketing program. At UniSA, he supervised three PhD students whose focus was on business-to-business marketing and channel management.
He has published in a range of Australasian and international journals, contributed to several books, and presented his research at conferences in Australasia, Europe and the United States.
John had substantial industry experience prior to joining UniSA, including positions of Product Manager, Industrial Detergents with Unilever South Africa; Manager, Marketing Information & Analysis with Kodak Australasia; Domestic Market Manager, Ingot with Alcoa of Australia; and Marketing & Sales Manager with Monier Castings.