Lionel Johnson
President, Pacific Pension & Investment Institute
Lionel C. Johnson became president of the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute in July 2014. His career spans nearly four decades during which he has been a leader in international business, public policy, and economic development. He has served as senior vice president of the Initiative for Global Development, as vice president of Turkey, Middle East, and North Africa Affairs at the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, and as senior vice president of Public Affairs at Fleishman-Hillard.
Previously, Johnson was vice president and director of International Government Affairs at Citigroup and deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for International Development, Debt and Environment Policy in the Clinton Administration. He was also a senior advisor for Resources, Plans, and Policy to Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and a member of the Department of State Policy Planning Staff. He served as deputy director of the Clinton/Gore transition team at the Department of State.
As a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Johnson held assignments in the U.S. Embassies in Haiti, the Philippines and Kenya. He also served as special assistant to Secretaries of State George P. Shultz and James A. Baker III. Johnson was a senior program officer at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He was a graduate instructor of U.S. foreign policy and American politics at the City University of Manila, Philippines, and received his B.A. in political science from Rutgers University in 1982.
Johnson is chairman of Foreign Policy for America, chairman of Sudoc, and a member of the board of trustees of the RAND Corporation. He also serves on the boards of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS), International Research & Exchanges (IREX), the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), and the Center for U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC). He has two children, Alicia and Christopher.