John Bowen was born in Vermont and grew up in a hilly patch of central Maine. He developed an interest in geography at an early age, poring over maps in the family’s old encyclopedias. Bowen's childhood hero was the Six Million Dollar Man but lacking the bionic abilities required for a career as a superhero crime-fighter, Bowen decided to study civil engineering after graduating first in his small class at Dexter Regional High School.

Despite the humble circumstances of his family, Bowen was able to attend Dartmouth College through a variety of generous scholarships. He quickly changed his major after taking Human Geography as an elective. One of the highlights of Bowen’s academic career at Dartmouth was a term-long foreign study program in Mexico; beginning in San Antonio, Texas, Bowen and six other students, their professor and a driver traversed much of Mexico, touching both coasts and the Guatemalan border.

Bowen won a Presidential Fellowship to attend graduate school at the University of Kentucky and in his first year there earned one of only a handful of three-year National Science Foundation graduate fellowships for geography students awarded across the country. At Kentucky, Bowen developed two of his central interests in the airline industry. His Master’s thesis dealt with the issues of airport congestion and deregulation, using Delta Air Lines as a test case. His Ph.D. dissertation turned to the connections between air transport and economic development, using Singapore as a case study.

While at Kentucky, Bowen met his future wife, a fellow graduate student from Singapore. The two were married in 1992 and, after living briefly in New York and Maryland, moved to Singapore. They lived there for three years, zipping about the tiny country in an ancient Datsun 120Y, last seen beached along a busy expressway.

In Singapore, Bowen’s experience researching Singapore Airlines (SIA) came full circle after he got a job there in 1994. He worked as a cargo marketing executive in the airline’s fast-growing cargo division. Bowen did everything from drafting executive speeches to helping to clean the company's Boeing 747 MegaArk freighters.

In 1997, the Bowens moved back to the United States and in 1998 moved to Wisconsin. The Bowens have two children.

Last updated:
January 28, 2008