Susan Richmond Johnson

Managing Principal, The Ashcroft Group LLC

Susan Richmond Johnson

Managing Principal, The Ashcroft Group LLC

Susan Johnson is a seasoned manager known for her organizational acumen and expertise in change management and disaster response. The American Academy of Project Management has certified Susan as a Master Project Manager (MPM) and a Certified International Project Manager (CIPM). Ms. Johnson is particularly involved in assisting the firm’s corporate and entrepreneurial clients in matters of corporate governance and compliance, due diligence, and business development. Her expertise has delivered great value to clients including world-leading defense contractors and industry-leading medical device manufacturers.

Before joining TAG Holdings, Ms. Johnson was Chief of Staff to Vice Admiral Thad Allen. With Allen, she managed the unprecedented federal response to Hurricane Katrina, which spanned 90,000 miles across five Gulf Coast states. Ms. Johnson oversaw redevelopment efforts and $100 billion in disaster relief for nearly one million displaced residents.
Previously, Ms. Johnson was Chief of Staff for Management at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Her focus was integrating the 22 federal agencies that formed DHS. She also managed DHS’s core business functions, including a $43.2 billion dollar operating budget and procurement, information technology, human resources and administrative services offices.

From 2001 to 2005, Ms. Johnson was Senior Advisor to the U.S. Attorney General and Department of Justice White House Liaison. She developed and implemented a $22 billion annual operating budget for the agency, was principal advisor on management and appropriations issues, and helped reorganize the Department after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Her work earned her the Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Management.

Ms. Johnson served as Policy and Research Director and campaign spokesperson on U.S. Senator John Ashcroft’s 2000 re-election campaign. Before that, she worked for then Senator Ashcroft. Ms. Johnson began her career in the Virginia House of Delegates working for then-Delegate Robert McDonnell.

Ms. Johnson holds an MBA and Master of Public Policy from Regent University, a BA from Palm Beach Atlantic University, and is a member of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce. She is married to a former Marine now serving as a police officer and is a mother of two. Her son is on the autism spectrum and inspired her to start a blog about the family’s autism journey. The blog launched in January 2018 at www.legosandlullabies.com.

Ms. Johnson joined TAG Holdings to be part of an experienced team focused on helping companies operate with integrity and compliance, manage crises, and realize value.

Consideration

With 2021 well underway and with public markets still strong, we think it is an important time to highlight some of the key private market, venture investment themes that iSelect fund has identified for the year. We believe technologies transforming the Agriculture, Food and Wellness markets will flourish, with a focus on four areas: technologies that enable better food choices to drive better health outcomes, technologies that drive better, more profitable farm operations, technologies that drive the Consumerization of Healthcare, and biome-based treatment technologies. At iSelect, we invest for impact AND performance. We offer qualified investors access to emerging growth companies through our national venture capital strategy. Our unique structure allows our investors to continue to invest in these companies as they develop.

Timing

Why is now the right time for venture? The answer is that now is not explicitly the right time. Venture is something we need in our economy at all times. Now is not better than any other particular time. The question is, why ever stop? When we look at the challenges we’re facing in food and healthcare the reality is there is someone, somewhere who has an insight about how to build a product that will solve those problems. And if they put the right resources to it, they will succeed. As long as we need new technology to make life better or make our lives more enjoyable, we need venture capital to help fuel those entrepreneurs.

What is iSelect as a product?

iSelect is a very unique product, but when you break it into its parts it’s fairly easy to understand. On the front end we’re a traditional venture capital fund. We have a diligence process. We have an investment process. We have categories of industries where we have focus and real expertise, and we invest in companies in those areas that meet requirements for the fund. On the back end we’re unique in that we don’t raise a large amount of capital at one time and deploy it over the life of our fund. Each deal that we bring onto the fund, our investors have to prove and determine to invest in that deal. We have to constantly prove our diligence standards. It’s accessible, transparent and easy for investors to come in and see our comprehensive process.

What is the ideal iSelect company?

We are looking for founders that are passionate and we want the problem they’re trying to solve to be big, real, and painful. We want the solution to be revolutionary and we want our capital to be able to help them solve that problem. We want to know that they have customers involved and that the solution they’ve come up with actually meets those customers’ and market needs. And we want the team to be capital efficient with the money they’re spending.

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

We’re looking for a company that has an opportunity to have a 10x return to our investment or greater in a period of three to seven years. What excites us at iSelect are companies that are solving big problems. We want companies that are going to be the Monsantos of the future. Not just in the size and the scope, but the impact they have on people’s lives. We want to create positive impacts on people’s lives, so we invest in areas like agricultural production and areas like producing healthy foods for our kids. They are problems that impact real people’s lives on a daily basis. That’s what we’re trying to do at iSelect. We’re trying to solve the big problems out there. Find ways to bring capital to the entrepreneurs who are the real heroes out there getting up every morning, beating away at these things that are problems that you and me and everyone else faces in their everyday lives.

What is iSelect?

iSelect is a venture capital firm. What that means is we look at hundreds and hundreds of different companies and we apply tough diligence standards to each of them, looking at whether the team has a good plan for growing the business, whether the team is qualified and credible, and more. We do that to resolve the few who provide the best opportunities for investors. And then iSelect takes that smaller set of investments and goes to investors who are interested in venture capital and provides a way for them to invest in these companies, either individually or all at once. We co-invest alongside other venture capitalists. We source transactions through to an exit where the company would become public or get bought. And we manage that whole investment process on behalf of our investors.