John Spencer

John E. Spencer brings more than 30 years of military, Fortune 500, private equity-backed, and entrepreneurial leadership experience. His career includes senior commercial leadership roles with GE, Hubbell, Cree Lighting, and other industrial businesses, with extensive experience in channel development, go-to-market strategy, new product development, and building high-performing commercial organizations.

His executive responsibilities have included managing $450 million in channel revenue at Cree Lighting and $238 million across more than 1,000 distributors at Hubbell. He has led national distribution networks, developed new routes to market, and worked directly with CEOs and business owners to address growth, organizational capability, competitive positioning, and execution challenges.

In 2019, John founded Clear Direction, where he serves as a Revenue Operating Partner and fractional CRO to founder-led and investor-backed middle-market companies. He helps owners and investors strengthen commercial performance, reduce key-person dependency, and build organizations capable of delivering their growth plans.

John brings an operator’s perspective to M&A, particularly the commercial and organizational factors influencing enterprise value, transaction readiness, and post-acquisition performance.

John previously served more than 10 years as a U.S. Air Force officer and Air Battle Manager, directing complex air operations in multinational environments, including missions during the Balkans conflict. He serves as the 2026 President of ACG Austin–San Antonio and Chair of ACG Texas Deal School.