Bio

William Johnson
Independent Consultant & Sole Proprietor, WMJ Associates

Mr. William M. Johnson is an independent consultant and sole proprietor of WMJ Associates LLC advising government and industry on management and leadership matters involving the acquisition of complex systems.  

He is recently retired from 37 years of federal government service.  Prior to retiring, he was Deputy for Future Combat Systems Open Architecture in the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems. Throughout his career, he has developed and successfully pioneered innovative methods for providing the U.S.Navy’s fleet with the best possible products in a timely and affordable manner.  He has been widely acclaimed as a key leader in business process transformation and is a recipient of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Award, its highest civilian honor. 

Mr. Johnson graduated from Cornell University where he received the Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1970 and the Master of Engineering (Electrical) in 1975.  In addition, he is a graduate of the Program Managers Course at the Defense Systems Management College, Ft.Belvoir, VA in 1989 and the Senior Officials in National Security Program at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA in 1994.  He has maintained ties with academia and has been the subject of case studies at both Harvard and the Naval Post Graduate School. 

After completion of undergraduate school, Mr. Johnson embarked on his career at the Georgia Institute of Technology Experiment Station, Atlanta, GA where he designed electronic circuitry used in testing of surface ship radar systems.  Mr. Johnson subsequently volunteered for active duty in the U.S. Navy where he served three years as an officer in undersea surveillance.   As a junior officer, he led efforts related to training and operational readiness that were twice recognized by the Commander Ocean Systems Pacific as the best under his command.  After leaving the Navy and completing graduate school, he embarked on a career in engineering and program management with the Department of the Navy.  Mr. Johnson is experienced in all aspects of design, development, fielding, support and acquisition of surface ship and submarine combat systems.  Since 1980, Mr. Johnson has had significant responsibility for many of the Navy's submarine sonar and combat control systems programs.  Most recently, he led business process transformation efforts at the Naval Enterprise level. These efforts aimed to greatly increase the Navy’s ability to take advantage of leading edge technologies and innovations.  

He is most proud of the numerous team awards, including the National Performance Review “Hammer” Award (twice), won by programs which he led.  He was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award (twice) and is the recipient of the NDIA Bronze Medal for his leadership in Submarine Combat Systems.   In addition, he was presented with the Superior Civilian Service Award by his Fleet sponsor for his pioneering of the highly acclaimed Acoustics Rapid COTS Insertion program which has been the model for technical and business process transformation within the Navy.  Based on actual expenditures, this program has been credited with a cost avoidance of $4B over a ten year period.

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