John McBride

Guest Lecturer

John McBride, with a diverse educational background spanning early modern Japanese literature, paleography, and international relations, coupled with a Master of Business Administration, brings a lot of knowledge and expertise to Coral Expeditions.

John McBride completed his undergraduate degree at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in 1983, majoring in early modern Japanese literature and paleography. His graduate degrees are from the Australian National University (ANU) in International Relations, and University of Melbourne (Master of Business Administration). He began his career at the Australia-Japan Research Centre, ANU, working on the establishment of the first APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Conference) held in Canberra in 1999.

He then joined Ansett Australia as VP Japan Region to help establish Ansett flights from Sydney into Ōsaka, Japan. Later he was Chief Executive of News Corporation Japan and helped build Sky PerfectTV, Japan’s largest satellite and fiber-optic based broadcasting company. Returning to live in Sydney in 2003, John has continued his interest in matching texts about ancient, natural, and contemporary history with his walking, both in Australia and Japan.

In Australia, John spent ten years exploring the arid zone of Australia, walking alongside camels over long stretches of the Simpson and Tanami Deserts. He also volunteers for Sydney University’s arid zone research department. Back in Japan where he spends half the year, John has revisited many of the ancient highways and pilgrimage routes he documented as a student, and has been leading history walking tours for the past 12 years. He also leads art tours of Japan for the Art Gallery of NSW. John was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his support of Australia-Japan cultural and business links, and for supporting young Australian artists and arts institutions. He is a licensed tea master of the Omotensenke School.