John Barrow
Founder
John Barrow is an innovator whose schemes broke new ground in sport and entertainment architecture through projects such as the O2 Arena in London, Leeds First Direct Arena, Groupama Stadium, Ravenscraig Sports Facility, Stadium MK and the Silverstone F1 redevelopment.
With an extensive and varied portfolio of work spanning three decades, John was responsible for opening up new market opportunities for Populous in Europe, Russia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He had a successful career in maximising the opportunities and potential of every project, including the master planning for the Dubai World Expo held in 2022.
John was involved in the design of several Olympic Games and venues. He led the design team for the Speedskating Oval for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. He headed the Populous team for London’s winning 2012 Olympic Games bid, masterplan and overlay plan. And he was responsible for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Stadium, for which he subsequently worked closely with the Populous events team on the stadium’s masterplan and legacy transformation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
John has always believed in teamwork, strong leadership and listening to other peoples’ opinions to ensure the correct focus between design and practicality.