Earlylands Leadership
Todd Johnson
Co-founder and Managing Partner Todd Johnson has spent 25 years working at the intersection of risk, strategy, and corporate affairs, with a focus on emerging and frontier markets. Prior to Earlylands, Todd was the global Risk Leader for Standard Industries, a privately-held company with holdings that include some of the world’s largest manufacturers of building solutions and performance materials.
From 2011-2019, Todd was the Johannesburg-based Risk Leader for GE Africa. In this position, he managed all non-financial risk mitigation efforts for GE on the continent. Prior to joining GE Africa, Todd was a member of a strategy team that exclusively served then-GE CEO Jeff Immelt. He began his career and worked for eight years as an intelligence analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency.
Todd is currently a senior advisor at Concordant, which integrates business strategy with full-service communications and bipartisan policy expertise. In addition to his professional roles, Todd is a visiting professor at IESE Business School, where he focuses on business strategy in emerging markets. Previously, Todd was an adjunct faculty member at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. He is a board member and finance committee chair for Emerging Public Leaders, a non-profit that develops apolitical, high-performing civil service cadres across Africa.
Todd has a BA in Political Science with Distinction from the University of Kansas and a Master of International Public Policy with Honors from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He is a former Council on Foreign Relations Term Member.
Jay Ireland
Co-founder and Managing Partner Jay Ireland brings decades of cross-functional, senior leadership experience to Earlylands, including a 38-year career with GE in a wide variety of senior positions across business units. Jay is also currently the executive chairman of Milele Energy, a power-generation company investing in clean-energy projects across sub-Saharan Africa.
As the CEO of GE Africa (2011-2018), Jay led GE’s operations on the sub-continent, growing revenue in Africa from $750M to nearly $4B. Other leadership roles included CEO of GE Asset Management, President of NBC Universal Television Stations, CFO of GE Plastics, and Director of Investor Relations. Jay was a GE company officer and member of the company’s Corporate Executive Council.
Jay is a board member of the Mastercard Foundation and a non-executive director of the publicly-listed Gates Industrial Corporation. He also serves as a senior adviser at Concordant. He is a Trustee of St. Lawrence University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1977.
A frequent public speaker, Jay won Africa Investor magazine’s ‘International Business Leader of the Year’ award in 2012 and 2013. He was also previously the Chair of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa and co-chair of the US-Africa Business Centre. He was also a member of the African Development Bank’s special panel on accelerating the implementation of its 10-year strategy.