Ms. Johnson is CEO of Salamander Hospitality, LLC, a company she founded in 2005, and oversees a growing portfolio of luxury properties. As President & Managing Partner of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, and a partner in Lincoln Holdings, LLC, Ms. Johnson is the first African-American woman to have a stake in three professional sports teams, including the Washington Wizards (NBA) and the Washington Capitals (NHL). She is also a TV pioneer, having been a founding partner of BET (Black Entertainment Television) and the creator of the award-winning program Teen Summit.  Currently, Ms. Johnson is producing films with a humanitarian message including Kicking It, A Powerful Noise, She Is The Matador and her latest film, The Other City, about the HIV/AIDS crisis in Washington DC.

 

In 2006 Ms. Johnson was named global ambassador for CARE, a leading aid organization fighting global poverty by empowering women. Ms. Johnson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as Chair of the Board of Governors of Parsons The New School for Design in New York. A fervent supporter of the arts and education, President Obama appointed her to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and she sits on the boards of Americans for the Arts, the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the Tiger Woods Foundation, the University of Virginia Curry School of Education, Howard University and the University of Illinois Foundation.