After 15 years of service to the city of Asbury Park, Ed Johnson will continue his service-oriented work in a new role.
The former mayor [above with the late Senator Frank Lautenberg] is now the president and founder of private consulting firm Ed Johnson Asbury Park.
“It’s a story that’s been in the making for about 30 years,” Johnson said. “It’s my version of the American dream.”
From 1998 to 2013, Johnson served in several leadership roles in Asbury, as mayor, councilman, and chairman of the urban enterprise zone, according to his website.
Johnson’s tenure as mayor of Asbury Park was officially up July 1. That same day he began taking over projects for the consulting firm, he said.
“For me, this is an exciting moment,” Johnson said.
For the past several years, Johnson has been “fielding and entertaining calls from as far away as Europe and Canada,” he said. Members of those communities want to know more about his involvement in the recent revitalization of Asbury Park.
“European business agencies working on business management watched what we did here with Asbury and want to start building their own infrastructure to that effort,” he said.
His solutions included identification of alternate revenue sources, sharing knowledge with local municipalities and oversight of the development through proper management, he said.
This summer, he will be bringing his knowledge of community building and resource management not only to other governmental agencies, but to the private sector and non-profit agencies, too.
Right now, the firm currently consists of Johnson and several other consultants that are as passionate as Johnson is, he said.
“I’m not interested in building a giant IBM company,” he said. “I’m interested in bringing people together to bring solutions to the table.”
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