My goal is to give back and inspire others by sharing my earned wisdom and experiences both personally and professionally, through sports and business, and life’s trials and tribulations. I hope to provide a roadmap for others to follow in their quest for success.

– John Casanova

Inspiring Others

NMU Pride LogoJohn Casanova is a high energy/hard working, authentic, approachable, honest individual who has built upon life’s lessons and principles of high morals, values and ethics.

John overcame growing up in a small community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to achieve success at many levels. He persevered to play professional sports and then honed those skills to catapult himself into the business world at Executive levels of some of America’s largest corporations over the past 35 years.

Along this journey, he has experienced the elation of being part of a winning collegiate football team, being part of two NFL franchises – the Bengals and the Packers – to overcoming the depths of personal adversity that included a nerve wracking, near fatal ordeal of his son’s heart surgery, followed by 2 major open-heart surgeries for himself that resulted in him contracting sepsis that put him on the brink of death’s door, painful back surgery and to top it all off, being diagnosed with traumatic stress disorder. Yet through it all, John was able to draw upon a 4th Quarter / 5-Pillar Foundation he learned as a young collegiate athlete that gave him the strength to overcome these obstacles.

Today, in addition to being a successful inspirational speaker, John is an entrepreneur who has built a successful greenfield company he began 5 years ago into the multi-million-dollar business today. His story is as interesting and engaging as it is inspiring.

  • Northern Michigan University
– BS Criminal Justice
  • 35 Years Business Experience
  • 28 Years key leadership
  • 18 Years in Executive leadership roles
  • 9 different industry leading companies
  • Start Up company from a greenfield and made it a 
multi-million-dollar business in 4 years
  • Elected member, Automotive Sales Council (2011)
  • Elected to Board of Directors for Automotive 
Sales Council (2019)
  • Member of the MEMA Brand Protection board
  • Member of AASA Board
  • Professional Football: Cincinnati Bengals and 
Green Bay Packers
NMU Football Team

NMU Football Team

Professional Career Path

  • Monroe Shock Absorbers ($1.9B) (Tenneco)
  • Exide Batteries ($2.1B)
  • Visteon ($16B)
  • Delco Remy ($1.7B)
  • Liberty Bell ($243M)
  • Champion Laboratories/Fram Filtration ($1.2B)
  • Crowne ($850m)
  • NovaPacific