John Ryan is the inaugural CEO of the Penington Institute and a leader in public health and safety. He actively works to promote sensible approaches to drug use in the community, including with media and by providing expert advice, including to governments.

He is a member of the Victorian Government’s Medically Supervised Injecting Room Review Panel, an innovative trial conducted in North Richmond.

Having previously worked as a university researcher, government policy-maker, and in frontline service delivery as a needle and syringe program worker, John is immediate past President of London-based Harm Reduction International.

John holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from Monash University. In 2012, he received a Churchill Fellowship to study ways to enhance public health approaches to drug policy.