Darrell Johnson has been President and CEO of FRANdata since 2001. FRANdata is the primary source of objective research about franchising, providing information, analysis, benchmarking, due diligence and credit risk rating services to franchisors and companies serving the franchise industry.
Mr. Johnson is a nationally recognized authority and frequent speaker on trends and developments in the franchise industry. He is frequently quoted in the national media and has regular articles in several franchise-focused periodicals.
Mr. Johnson previously was a senior executive with the National Cooperative Bank (NCB), a specialized lending institution that develops creative financing alternatives for cooperative and related organizations. Mr. Johnson was responsible for developing SBA and conventional lending business units, leasing programs and equity investment programs in the franchise, cooperative and healthcare industries.
Before joining NCB in 1992, Johnson was a Partner at London Manhattan Company and Scully Capital where he provided mergers and acquisition advisory services to middle market companies, led the sale of companies and assisted in the restructuring and turnaround of companies in many industries. Mr. Johnson was also the founder of the investment banking subsidiary of a regional commercial bank (now part of Bank of America), specializing in middle market mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance services.
Earlier in his career Mr. Johnson was an economist and director of special examinations for the Farm Credit Administration, a specialized Federal financial regulatory agency.
Mr. Johnson earned an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, an MS in Economics with Distinction from Montana State University and an BS with Honors from Montana State University. Some of his current and past directorships include The International Franchise Association (IFA), IFA Education Foundation, IFA Supplier Forum, SPP Capital Partners, EOS Financial Group, NOVA Southeastern University International Institute of Franchise Education and Cobrin, Inc.
