Bob Johnson, Founding Principal, Retires from Convergent

It is with mixed emotions we inform you that Bob Johnson, one of our founding Principals, has retired from Convergent. Bob brought over 30 years of experience in the economic development industry to our team, and he has personally raised more than $75,000,000 for chambers of commerce and other economic and community benefit organizations across the country.

Not only has Convergent benefitted from Bob's leadership, but so have the many other organizations that he has worked with throughout the years. He served as President/CEO of both the Maui Economic Development Board (HI) and the Somerset Coalition for Smart Growth (NJ), as well as personally managing a wide range of fundraising campaigns for organizations such as the Community Development Foundation in Tupelo, MS, The Air Force Museum Foundation at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, OH, and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce in Chattanooga, TN, just to name a few. Throughout his travels, his high school sweetheart and wife of 54 years, Ciari, has been by his side, often serving as Bob's Campaign Coordinator.

As Executive Director of Field Operations for Convergent, he supervised scores of projects which have successfully raised hundreds of millions of dollars to support the causes of our clients. More importantly, Bob's enthusiasm and genuine interest in each of our team members and clients helped to create a feeling of support and caring that we can only hope to continue and strengthen in his absence.

We are honored that we had the chance to be a small part of Bob's long and distinguished career, which includes not only his time in the nonprofit sector, but also 23 years working as a corporate attorney and tackling the role of CEO of a major food distributor. Bob will certainly be missed by everyone here at Convergent. He was a great mentor to our personnel in the field, a valuable resource to our clients, and a personal inspiration to all who knew him. We wish Bob and his family all the best and look forward to entertaining and uplifting stories about his many retirement adventures to come.

Bob and his wife Ciari wanted to share the following:

We look forward to continuing our love affair with Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the world's largest lake, Lake Superior. We even love those long, snowy 'Yooper' winters. We look forward to being at home where we will be visited by family and friends, and plan to make occasional trips around the country, towing our 27 foot travel trailer accompanied by our 3 small dogs Korci, Bucky and Koko, to visit even more family and friends.

If you would like to keep in touch, we can be reached at our personal email address: bobandciarijohnson@gmail.com

All the best, Bob and Ciari.