John Friend is an American yogi born in 1959 who founded the influential Anusara School of Hatha Yoga in 1997. He began practicing yoga at 13 and was a financial analyst before teaching full-time in 1986, gaining international recognition as a yoga "mogul" in the 2000s. However, scandals of sexual and financial misconduct led to his resignation from Anusara in 2012, after which he took a break and later developed a new system of yoga called Bowspring.