Johnson Advisory Group provides private leadership-communications counsel to elected officials and senior executives. Matthew Johnson founded the firm out of a career across the Marine Corps and urban policing, most of it in patrol. From inside that work, he founded his department’s social media presence before it had a public information officer. He designed community outreach programs that ran ahead of the field and made a public case for them that the community trusted. Other departments in the region adopted the model. From 2016 to 2018, he created, produced, and co-hosted Podcast vs. The State, covering politics, the military, and law enforcement from an operator’s perspective.
Leadership communications lives in the choices a leader makes before the prepared remarks: what they defend, who they stand with, and how words shape public trust.
About the founder
Matthew Johnson is also founder and CEO of Harbor Security Technologies. He is an IACP 40 Under 40 honoree and an Obama Foundation Leader. He serves as a police lieutenant in Baltimore.
He holds an Executive MBA from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, an undergraduate degree in communications from the University of Maryland Global Campus, and is a graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff and Command. He has been a Big Brother through Big Brothers Big Sisters since 2013. He serves on the board of House of Ruth Maryland and on its development and finance committees.
Practice areas
The firm advises a small number of clients across the following areas:
- Strategic positioning and message discipline
- Speechwriting, floor remarks, and Q&A preparation
- Crisis communications and press response
- Public safety communications and community engagement
- Constituent, stakeholder, and coalition communications
- Counsel for principals and senior staff
Inquiries
Engagements are limited and accepted by referral only.