PODCAST: CICP chief reflects on the journey
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
By the calendar, Central Indiana Corporate Partnership President and Chief Executive Officer David Johnson has only a few weeks left on the job, but his impact on Indiana’s economy will have a generational effect, says AgriNovus Indiana President and CEO Mitch Frazier. Johnson announced his retirement in June. He is the guest on the upcoming episode of the Agbioscience podcast presented by AgriNovus.
“We have world class assets and world class people,” said Johnson. “And that’s true across all of our advanced industries. So, if you work here, you can get to feel really darn good and should about what we have.”
CICP is an alliance of Indiana business and research university leaders that work collectively to bolster the state’s economy and foster long-term prosperity. It serves as the umbrella organization for five key talent and industry sector initiatives, including AgriNovus Indiana.
The organizations each address challenges and opportunities unique to their sectors. Johnson says while Indiana’s key economic drivers, including agbiosciences, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing have shown tremendous growth over the past decade, the state still faces strong headwinds to compete globally.
“I think our biggest challenge here is that we’re small. I mean, this is a state still with fewer than 7 million people. And we’re in a part of the state with a 2 million person metropolitan area, which is really the entry price of admission to be able to compete for talent and for opportunity in a globally competitive environment, we just barely fit,” said Johnson. “And that means that we don’t have any room to make a miscue or a mistake or misstep. And that is hard. It’s very hard to do in this world.”
Johnson and podcast host Mitch Frazier look back at Johnson’s career path, which went from Harvard and Oxford to Capitol Hill, before returning to Indianapolis. Click here to access the podcast when it comes out Monday morning.
