John Barabino

An entrepreneur and executive of pioneering Internet companies like Google, DoubleClick, and Firefly, John’s aptitude for taking businesses and developing them from the ground up also extends around the globe to businesses he built and ran in the United States, Europe, and Asia. At Google, John developed and directed the search engine’s multi-billion dollar syndication and distribution team that bridged and built strategic partnerships with worldwide companies like Apple, America Online (AOL), Amazon, eBay, The New York Times, France Telecom, and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT). He was also part of the founding team of Google’s Policy & Government Affairs office in Washington, D.C. Following Google, John consulted with the Environmental Defense Fund to help drive policy and programmatic work around the smart grid, a data gathering and transmission system to help manage and predict energy supply and demand. One part of his project was the Pecan Street Project, an innovative public-private initiative to develop a local clean-energy power system for the city of Austin, Texas, where the Environmental Defense Fund is working with the city and Austin Energy on becoming the “utility of the future.” John started his career in global business management and consulting with The Boston Consulting Group in London. He is a graduate of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, and Harvard Business School, where he was a Fulbright and Baker scholar. His studies also include graduate studies at the University of California Berkeley’s School of City & Regional Planning. In addition to the Gill Foundation, John also serves on the board of the Community Foundation of Utah. John and his husband, David Huebner, live in Salt Lake City, Utah with their son, Miles.