Mr. Johnson is a nationally renowned expert in domestic and international innovation ecosystems and experienced at creating complex partnerships between government, academia, industry, and nongovernmental organizations.

Currently a member of the National Academies Government University Industry Research Roundtable, he was Executive Director of the Innovation Institute at the University of Massachusetts which he founded, Vice President of Corporate Institute Relations at Caltech and Director of Innovation Partnerships at Mass Insight.

Wayne is a member of the ASTRA Board of Directors and an influential member of the global innovation community.  Johnson has spent many years navigating corporate and academic interfaces related to intellectual property rights, innovation policy, technology commercialization and competitiveness issues.

He currently serves as a Board member of the Weston Council on Aging, Springwell and Vetflix. He is also an advisor to the technology start-up known as the Curious Reactor. In April 2018 Mr. Johnson was invited by Newton-Wellesley Hospital to serve as an Overseer for a three-year term.

Widely recognized as a thought leader and global influencer, Johnson was a delegate to the Clinton Global Initiative, September 2007. He has also been quoted as a subject matter expert on the topic of engineering education and global capacity building in the press. Johnson was one of 5 members of an expert panel, which provided Congressional Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives (Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation, Committee on Science and Technology on July 17, 2007, regarding “Bayh-Dole – the Next 25 Years,” significant legislation, which seeks to address issues of Intellectual Property (IP).

Johnson joined HP in 2001 from Microsoft’s University Relations where he managed Program Managers and administrative staff across a customer base of 50 tier-one universities. From 2001 until 2008 he was Vice President of University Relations Worldwide at Hewlett-Packard Company. From 1967 to 2000, he held a variety of positions at the Raytheon Company in Waltham, Massachusetts, including National Sales Manager for Wireless Solutions, Manager of International Financing and Business Development, Manager of Administration and Strategic Planning for Raytheon’s Research Division, and Manager of Program Development and Operations for Technical Services.

Johnson received his B.A. from Colgate University, Hamilton, NY and his M.B.A. from Boston College’s Carroll School, Boston, MA. He was an Adjunct Professor of Management at Boston University from 1977 to 1999. Johnson was recognized during this period, as one of BU Metropolitan College’s most outstanding adjunct faculty members of the year. Johnson’s work was also acknowledged in 2005 through a Harvard Business School Case Study – HP Nanotech: Partnership with CNSI, which illustrates the challenges of managing industrial – university collaborations and examines issues of US national competitiveness.