At the Institute of International Education’s awards gala in New York City on October 4, IIE is presenting Thomas S. Johnson, Chairman of IIE's Board of Trustees and Retired Chairman, GreenPoint Bank, with its Stephen P. Duggan Award for Mutual Understanding, named for the Institute’s founder. The award is given to outstanding individuals who further IIE’s work in international exchange.
Mr. Johnson grew up in Racine, Wisconsin with no idea that fostering understanding among people of different cultures would come to be a central priority in his life. He credits a scholarship to Trinity College with opening his mind to the world, through the quality of education he received, and through mentors there who encouraged him to attend Harvard Business School. On graduating with his MBA from Harvard, he was offered the opportunity to help start the first business school in Asia, at Ateneo de Manila University.
“Before I was approached, I had never considered teaching or going abroad – I couldn’t afford to even think about foreign study.” He taught in Manila from 1964 to 1966, helping to develop the program’s curriculum, attract more faculty, and establish a program of assistance through Harvard from the Ford Foundation. The program grew to become the Asian Institute of Management, a leading graduate school of business. “The experience of living in a foreign country at age 23 gave me a kind of insight into my own culture that I think you get only by living outside of it for a while. I believe strongly that all young people should have an extensive experience studying or working and living outside their own country,” Mr. Johnson says. Upon returning to the United States from Manila, he served as a special assistant to the Comptroller of the U.S. Department of Defense in the Pentagon.
Mr. Johnson began his career in banking in 1969 and has had almost 40 years experience in the banking industry. He served as President of Chemical Bank from 1983 to 1989 and President of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. from 1989 to 1991. From 1993 until he retired in 2004, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GreenPoint Financial Corporation, which operated GreenPoint Mortgage, a national mortgage banking company, and GreenPoint Bank, a large consumer banking operation in the New York City area.
“Much of my devotion, aside from my work and my family,” Mr. Johnson says, “is to the fields of education and international relations.” Mr. Johnson joined the Board of Trustees of the Institute of International Education in 1989 and was elected the Chairman of the Board in January 2003. He also chairs the board of the United States-Japan Foundation. He presently serves on the boards of the Inner City Scholarship Fund, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is Trustee Emeritus and former Chairman of Trinity College, former Trustee and Chairman of the Union Theological Seminary, former Trustee and Treasurer of The Asia Society, former Trustee of The Cancer Research Institute, and a former Member of the Group of Thirty, Consultative Group in International Economic and Monetary Affairs.
Mr. Johnson currently sits on the Boards of Alleghany Corporation, R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. Inc. and The Phoenix Companies, Inc. He is a former Director of Freddie Mac, North Fork Bancorporation, Prudential Life Insurance Company of America and Online Resources Corp.
“I am absolutely convinced that if more thought-leaders and political leaders could have international experiences, there would be more tolerance and appreciation for different cultures and maybe less inclination to have wars,” Mr. Johnson says. “Extreme nationalism doesn’t survive when you have the opportunity to develop intimate relationships with people unlike yourself. The world would be a better place if people could mix it up more.”
Mr. Johnson received an A.B. in Economics from Trinity College in 1962 and an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School in 1964.
Mr. Johnson and his wife, Ann, are parents of Thomas, Margaret, and Scott (deceased, September 11, 2001, WTC.)