David L. Johnson is the president of Regional Growth Strategies LLC, a consulting practice focused on workable approaches to growing and sustaining technology-based regional economies. In their 2018 book on regional economic development, “The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism,” Brookings’s Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak gave extended attention to the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) in Indianapolis, focusing on Johnson’s leadership role as CEO in making CICP into “one of the most impactful business and civic leadership groups in the nation.” CICP is a collaborative nonprofit corporation bringing together the chief executives of the region’s leading corporations, universities, and philanthropic foundations to identify, fund, and activate best prospects and projects for continued growth. A 2018 Brookings Metro report, “Rethinking cluster initiatives,” singled out CICP as “the rare organization that can seed several high-capacity industry interventions that address the weaknesses and build on the strengths of Central Indiana’s regional economy.”
Johnson has been involved in the hands-on work of economic development for over 20 years. He led CICP as CEO from 2013 through 2022, and co-founded BioCrossroads, CICP’s first advanced industry initiative focused on the region’s substantial life sciences cluster, in 2002, then leading the organization as CEO through 2018. Under Johnson’s management, CICP fostered three additional industry initiatives. It also launched one of the nation’s premier, employer-led workforce and talent development organizations, Ascend Indiana. Since 2015, CICP has driven the formation, capitalization, and successful redevelopment of the region’s first innovation district, 16 Tech, rising on 50 acres of formerly blighted real estate near the heart of downtown Indianapolis. 16 Tech is a uniquely inclusive innovation community, designed and built in collaboration with several of the city’s historically underserved neighborhoods. More recently, Johnson led efforts to join regional industry and academic leaders under a new initiative—AnalytixIN—to pursue credible opportunities for clinical and commercial applications of artificial intelligence and data analytics.
Earlier at BioCrossroads, Johnson organized and led the capitalization of five seed and early-stage venture capital funds to support locally based life sciences start–ups. He also drove the formation of the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, an industry-university applied research collaborative, and OrthoWorx Indiana, a spin-out organization focused on Northern Indiana’s historically outsized concentration in orthopedics devices. Along the way, Johnson has built a track record of trust across a wide array of company and community executives, university presidents, foundation leaders, and elected officials.
Prior to his leadership roles with CICP and BioCrossroads, Johnson worked as a public finance lawyer and business counsel, representing both governments and corporations in public-private partnerships and economic development transactions. Earlier in his career, he served as minority legal counsel and a professional staff member for the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.