Johan studied tropical and subtropical agriculture at Ghent University. He worked in international cooperation projects in DR Congo and Guinea (Conakry), at Ghent University (faculty of agronomy) and in the Flemish federation for NGOs. Since 2009 he works for Join For Water (previously Protos) as desk officer in Ghent following several country programs.

Actually Johan works partly as coordinator of the newly formed network on social-ecological resilience SECORES and partly as desk officer at Join For Water. SECORES has been formed by 6 Belgian organizations (BOS+, CEBioS, Join For Water, Uni4Coop, VIA Don Bosco and WWF Belgium) to promote social-ecological resilience and to organize joined learning, advocacy and synergy. It offers a platform to Belgian cooperation actors and their field partners to exchange and to work together on this theme.