[3][4] A lifelong resident of the Seattle area,[5] John Stanton went to Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington.

[10] From 2008 until 2013 he was director and then chairman of Clearwire Corp.[3] In 2005, he, Strive Masiyiwa, Bradley Horwitz, and others formed Trilogy International Partners.

[9] As of August 2016, Stanton was reported to own approximately US$45 million of stock holdings in Columbia Sportswear, General Communication Inc. and other companies.

[19] As one of 17 minority owners in the team,[5] in April 2016, Stanton was appointed as the new CEO of the Seattle Mariners organization after Nintendo sold its majority stake for $661 million.

[5][20] Major League Baseball formally approved the sale of the Mariners to Stanton in August of that year.

[22] In 2019, the team had few wins, with Stanton arguing the metric to look at was player success within a long term plan.

[23] In 2014, he had chaired or co-chaired the Business Partnership for Early Learning, the United Way of King County campaign, the Washington Roundtable, and the Regional Transportation Commission.