John K. McKiel

A native Midwesterner, John was born in Mishawaka, Indiana. When he was 12, John’s parents, both educators, took jobs in China and moved the entire family to a city outside of Tianjin for almost two years. By the time John was 14, he was conversant in Mandarin Chinese. This experience expanded John’s understanding of the world and guided the path for much of his career. After college, John moved to Taiwan to improve his Mandarin. In total, John lived in China and/or Taiwan for approximately six years.

John’s language skills and international experience launched him into an international business career. John has extensive experience in advising foreign companies on their entrance strategies into the United States and working with economic developers on their international business development strategies. In Washington, D.C., John worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s SelectUSA Program, which is the investment promotion agency for the US Government. SelectUSA is charged with increasing foreign company presence in the United States with the goal of job creation and economic development. While at SelectUSA, he led the strategic direction for the program’s investment attraction operations for the Greater China region across eight US consulates and one US embassy in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. In this role he also consulted directly with companies on their expansions into the United States, assisting them with identifying target markets, conducting data-driven analyses on-site selection, interfacing with local and state economic developers, navigating the US immigration system, and understanding the US business regulatory environment. He advised companies across a wide array of industries, including automotive EOM suppliers, battery recycling companies, electric vehicle manufacturers, agricultural and fishery companies, biomedical suppliers, and multi-billion-dollar conglomerate corporations. His teams achieved billions of dollars in commitments for inbound investment, including a significant commitment for future expansion into the United States from Chairman Wang of Dalian Wanda, the owner of the US-based AMC movie theater chain. The Greater China teams also recruited the largest delegation for the SelectUSA Summit for three years in a row while John was managing the portfolio. The SelectUSA Summit is an annual event hosted in Washington, DC by the US Department of Commerce that convenes 2,300-2,600 executives and high-level government officials from around the world to facilitate increased foreign investment into the United States.

Since 2020, John has been working in healthcare strategy and operations. He currently works in Strategy and Business Development at Parkview Health, the largest health system, and employer in Northeast Indiana. In his role, he advises internal stakeholders on strategic planning and decisions for the growth of the organization. Previously, he also worked at a community hospital in the Johns Hopkins Health System where he successfully facilitated numerous process improvement projects, developed business plans, and conducted financial analyses for potential new business lines.

John has also had forays into consulting at the local and federal levels, developing financial and economic development models. As a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, he created a budgetary allocation tool for a large federal client to assess the downstream impact of investments in various areas of the organization. He also worked on an economic impact modeling for the economic development office of a large U.S. city, assisted in the launch of Washington, D.C.’s representative offices in Beijing and Shanghai, and planned for the D.C. Mayor’s inaugural trip to China.

John earned a BA in Political Science from Indiana University, a Master of Business Administration from The George Washington University, and a Master of Health Administration from Johns Hopkins University. He also earned a certification in Change Management from Georgetown University and certification in Lean Six Sigma from Johns Hopkins University. He currently lives in Fort Wayne, IN with his lovely wife Sharon.