Zach Johnson is one of those people who has done a lot in a lifetime. And there’s plenty more to come from this innovator and entrepreneur, who chooses to call the Sunshine Coast home.
Returning home after a special operations role during the first Gulf War, Zach Johnson decided to make his first career pivot.
He studied at uni and ended up working at a major consulting firm in Boston. The term “big data” had yet to be coined, but that’s the space where Zach Johnson found himself, evaluating large-scale, multi-year government policy programs.
Which is what led this former soldier to become a tech pioneer. In 1998 he helped build the first ever online banking portal for Citibank in Japan.
In Germany he consulted to Daimler Chrysler, building the first intranet platform for the newly merged firm’s 300,000 employees.
London and a new career pivot: e-learning, building an online training platform for the British Ministry of Defence.
Why the Sunshine Coast?
Zach’s next role was the one that changed him and his family’s destiny. He was appointed the head of Asia-Pacific at innovative e-learning company Blackboard.
“We were moving again – this time to Australia. The only thing I needed to do was pick where we wanted to live,” says Zach. “As a family, we looked at options all across Australia. We chose the Sunshine Coast, sight unseen.”
“It was a lifestyle choice for us as a family. The great schools, and especially the weather after living in the UK and northern Europe made it an easy choice too.”
Thirteen years later, Zach and his wife are soon to be young empty nesters. “We could move again, but what we’d be looking for is right here.
“I love the Sunshine Coast’s smart city thinking. There’s a buzz of excitement on here that I don’t think you could find in many other places in the world. “It’s because of where we’re going as a region, more so than who we are now or what we’ve been.”
Zach Johnson’s recent achievements on the Sunshine Coast are notable.
