Interim CEO Todd Johnson On What’s Next For Activate
Interim CEO Todd Johnson
Todd Johnson has always been drawn to people and the idea of a planet where people can flourish for generation upon generation. Even as a full-time lawyer—his occupation for 29 years—he led his global law firm to establish one of the first renewable energy and sustainability practices and he spent a significant time working pro-bono at the intersection of for-profit and nonprofit organizations. As a result, Johnson became an early leader in social entrepreneurship and impact investing and over the years, he has mentored hundreds of mission-driven entrepreneurs, companies, and nonprofits, including Activate.
Johnson remembers when Activate was just an idea on a whiteboard. Since then, as a board member and trusted advisor, Johnson has championed Activate’s mission and supported the organization through significant growth. Now, following the departure of Activate’s founder and CEO Ilan Gur, Johnson has been appointed by Activate’s board as the interim CEO to guide Activate into its next chapter.
We spoke with Johnson about his approach to this transition, the search for the next CEO, and his outlook on Activate’s future.
Can you give a brief overview of your journey with Activate?
After a decade of working with social entrepreneurs, I noticed lots of people making their way to my door. Saar Gur, a venture capitalist, reached out to me to think through an idea for a social enterprise and later, introduced me to his brother Ilan, who was at ARPA-E and was thinking about launching some type of program to get scientists out of post-doc labs so their science could help change the world. Ilan and I did six or eight whiteboarding sessions over the course of a few years, talking about structure, capital, governance, and incentive alignment. And that's how I got involved in what became Activate. I ended up serving as pro-bono counsel for Activate at its birth and shortly after it was up and running, I retired from the law firm, and Activate asked me to join the board.
“In many respects, my success as interim CEO will be measured by the brevity of my tenure and how quickly I can get the next CEO on board.”
How are you approaching the role of interim CEO?
The Activate leadership team is an amazing group of people, with the talent and drive needed to run this organization. My goals are simple: make sure they are resourced appropriately by blowing wind in their sails as necessary, and stay out of their way and let them lead. I’d hate to become a drain on their superpowers.
I’m also continuing to chair the executive committee of the Activate board, and that committee is responsible for running the search for the next CEO. In many respects, my success as interim CEO will be measured by the brevity of my tenure and how quickly I can get the next CEO on board.
How do you plan to find Activate’s next CEO?
First, the board’s executive committee will identify an executive search firm to assist it in running a nationwide search. As an extension of Activate into the broader community, the search firm must fit culturally with the “fellows-first” and people-first culture of the organization and must have a demonstrated proficiency in executive-level searches for unique organizations.
Second, the search firm will work with the executive committee to develop a process that includes obtaining input from a variety of sources. To help us get a diverse set of input, the executive committee has already identified a couple of advisors who will join us in our search effort: Arun Majumdar, a former board member, former head of ARPA-E, and now the dean of Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability; and Etosha Cave, a fellow from Activate’s first cohort and the co-founder and chief science officer of Twelve.
Arun Majumdar, former Activate board member, former head of ARPA-E, and now the dean of Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability
Etosha Cave, Cohort 2015 Activate Fellow and co-founder and chief science officer of Twelve
At the same time, we are developing a “who” working document—outlining the “must haves,” and the “we’d like to see” qualities and experiences for the next leader of Activate—with input from the executive team, the board, various stakeholders, and in the coming weeks, from the entire Activate staff. This document will be a starting place for the position description that will be published when we launch the search, probably sometime in September.
“There is no such thing as a perfect time to lose a founding CEO. But it would be hard to think of Activate being in a better condition for a departure like this”
How does this leadership transition coincide with Activate’s current stage of growth?
Looking back, the first five years of Activate, we were proving a concept: that scientists could be good entrepreneurs and that Activate’s program could bias their startups towards success.
The next question was, “How do we scale this?” For the past two years, we've been on a journey of experimentation, learning how to launch new sites—both physical and virtual—and bringing on a team that has the depth needed for long-term sustained growth.
The Activate team, July 2022.
Ilan is a unique and gifted leader, with superpowers that achieved incomparable success in taking Activate from idea to scale and in attracting a world-class team. I think we all feel a huge loss with his departure. Still, the board is looking ahead at the next stage of Activate's growth, and for a CEO with a growth mindset who can serve as an orchestra conductor for our growing team—someone whose gift is helping people to be symphonic.
There is no such thing as a perfect time to lose a founding CEO. But it would be hard to think of Activate being in a better condition for a departure like this, and we're committed to getting a kickass CEO for the next phase of Activate’s growth.