John Stanton is the co-founder of Trilogy Partnership and Trilogy International, and is a wireless pioneer who led four of the top wireless carriers in the industry. A life-long resident of the Seattle area, John started his career as one of the first employees at McCaw Cellular in 1982, and eventually became COO and then Vice-Chairman. McCaw Cellular grew to be the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. at that time, and in 1994 it was sold to form what is now AT&T Wireless.

In the late 1980s, John began acquiring rural wireless properties with partners Mikal Thomsen and Terry Gillespie. These properties, along with other merged entities, formed Western Wireless Corporation in 1994, which operated wireless networks in 11 countries in Europe, Africa, and South America. John led Western Wireless as Chairman and CEO through 2005. He then formed Trilogy Partnership a private equity fund that invests in early-stage growth opportunities in the wireless ecosystem. Trilogy Partners International was also formed with John, Terry Gillespie, Brad Horowitz and others, which was a wireless operator in Central and South America and New Zealand. John and the team traveled the world establishing cellular systems in countries lacking wireless connectivity.

In 1995, John led VoiceStream Wireless, which was formed as a subsidiary of Western Wireless. He was its CEO and Chairman, and in 2001 it was acquired by Deutsche Telecom and was eventually renamed T-Mobile USA. In December 2008, John joined the board of Clearwire Corporation and served as its chairman from 2011 until the company was sold to Sprint in August 2013.

In serving his community, John has chaired or co-chaired the Business Partnership for Early Learning, Year Up of Puget Sound, and the United Way of King County campaign. He is currently on the board of the Washington Roundtable, a group that effects positive change on local public policy issues. John was a member and past chairman of the Board of Trustees of Whitman College, and he currently serves on the boards of Microsoft Corporation and Costco Wholesale Corporation. He is also the chairman and majority owner of the Seattle Mariners. John has a BA in Political Science from Whitman College, and earned an MBA at Harvard Business School. He was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2004.