Just before heading to the University of Iowa to join the university’s swim team, John Fellows discovered a copy of the Book of Mormon on a bookshelf in his parents’ home in Boise, Idaho. He packed it in his bags, and before long he called the missionaries wanting to know more. The combination of his baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a swimming-prohibitive injury led him to transfer to BYU, where he joined the Army ROTC and discovered what would become his lifelong career.
Fellows graduated from BYU Marriott in 1986 with a BS in business management and an emphasis in operations. At the same time, he was recognized as a Distinguished Military Graduate (an honor given to the top 20 percent of graduates across the nation) and commissioned as an artillery officer. This became a jumping-off point for Fellows, leading to a twenty-three-year career in the military before he stepped into the C-suite position he currently holds at APT Research.
Fellows was first stationed in Nuremberg, Germany, and went on to serve in a variety of combat assignments during his career. As international tensions rose that would eventually lead to the Gulf War, Fellows’s French language experience (a result of his Church mission to Belgium) aided him and his unit as he provided support to French forces for several weeks, earning him a Bronze Star Medal. Fellows and his wife, Julia, moved a total of eleven times in their first thirteen years of marriage; three children joined the family during that time. The Fellows family currently lives in Bremen, Alabama.
“People often wonder what the impact of military life is on the fam- ily,” says Fellows. “My wife used to tell my children, ‘Your best friends are your brother and sister, so you better treat them nicely, because they’re the ones who’re going to be moving with you to the next duty station.’ Now they’re very close.”
In 1996 Fellows became an Army Acquisition Corps professional, beginning as an assistant product manager for the M109A6 Paladin/ M992A2 Field Artillery Ammunition Support Vehicle Program Office. He transitioned in 2000 into the role of product and program manager of multiple radar programs for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). His time with radar development programs, and especially his oversight of the development and production of a radar system currently operating in the Pacific area, earned Fellows column space in publications such as Time magazine and Air and Space Magazine. Fellows is proud to
have aided in saving innocent lives. “There’s a lot of pride in developing any kind of capability that positively impacts human life,” he says.
Fellows earned an MS in management from the Florida Institute of Technology in 2001 and took a brief leave of absence from his role at the MDA to pursue a master’s degree in national resource strategy from the National Defense University in Washington, DC, from which he graduated in 2005.
After seven years as vice president of programs at Science Applica- tions International Corporation, Fellows stepped into the role of CEO at APT Research, an employee-owned professional engineering services company, in 2015. Located in Huntsville, Alabama, with offices in other states, the company supports industry and federal organizations, includ- ing NASA and the MDA. “There’s a culture change that goes with going from a sole proprietorship to an employee-owned company, but it’s more collaborative,” Fellows says. “It’s rewarding to lead a team of good people.”
Fellows is a national-level USA Swimming Official, cochair of the Alabama Birmingham Chapter of BYU’s Alumni Association, and a high councilor in his stake of the Church. He loves to hike, go boating, swim, rep the Y, and serve others. Fellows is a director on the board of the Riley Center, a local nonprofit serving children with autism, and other community giving organizations. “I have a hard time saying no to getting involved,” Fellows says. “We all have different talents and experiences, . . . and we can make a difference if we’re involved in the.”
