Lindsey is a cofounder of HGD Data. She is also partner and co-founder of Permitting Partners. She has assisted clients with identifying sites for operations, understanding the concerns of the surrounding community and how to engage key influencers, and developing innovative solutions that garner community buy-in. Johnson also advises clients on how to work effectively with local and state governments – as well as community leaders – to successfully facilitate the process.
Johnson has applied her economic development expertise to assist women entrepreneurs across the country. She co-founded Women Incorporated (WI), a non-profit organization founded to improve the business climate for female entrepreneurs through advocacy, education, access to credit, and aggregating the market power of the large number of women entrepreneurs.
Johnson also served as the national director of the Office of Women’s Business Ownership at the U.S. Small Business Administration, where she designed a public policy framework that would create economic development to support and promote women entrepreneurs. She was the director of legislative affairs for the Washington, D.C.-based law firm, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, where she specialized in energy, employee benefit and health care issues, international trade, contracting and transportation issues. She also has served as campaign manager for several congressional campaigns, worked on a number of state and local races and served as a national coalition director for the 1988 Presidential Campaign for Bush/Quayle. She also has worked at the U.S. Departments of Commerce and State. Johnson received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and an A.B. in International Relations from the University of Chicago.