John Sammarco
“Although today’s business problems are increasingly complex, there are relatively simple solutions available if you are open to change.”
John is an executive portfolio and decision-support leader with 35+ years of experience helping organizations improve how they select, govern, and optimize business and technology investments. He founded Definitive Business Solutions in 2003 to bring patented, practical decision-making methods and modern portfolio management to complex environments—especially where transparency, auditability, and risk reduction are critical.
He is the creator of Definitive Pro®, an AI-enabled project portfolio management (PPM) platform launched in 2016 to strengthen project investment selection, portfolio governance, and value realization. He is also the co-creator of Definitive Choice®, an AI-enabled app released in 2020 that enables individuals and small teams to execute defensible alternatives analyses and make higher-quality decisions faster. He holds three U.S. patents in decision-making.
His work spans federal, state, municipal, and commercial organizations—facilitating executive decision forums, developing business case and scoring methodologies, and implementing portfolio operating models. Recent engagements include leading portfolio investment management support for the U.S. Treasury/OCC, conducting alternatives analyses for the EPA, facilitating nationwide and global selection/prioritization efforts for the U.S. Department of Energy, and enabling statewide capital prioritization across 38 higher education institutions in New Mexico.
In addition to industry leadership roles (including Director, Portfolio Management at AOL), Mr. Sammarco serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, teaching systems analysis/design and analytics consulting. He has been a PMP since 2001 and has held strategy leadership roles within PMI’s Washington, D.C. chapter.