Dean's Advisory Council

Jay Johnson
(Retired) General Manager Aftermarket Supply Chain
Daimler Trucks North America

Jay Johnson first obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University in 1987. He then started his MBA at Ohio State before accepting an opportunity to move to Japan while working for Honda. Upon his return, Mr. Johnson entered Purdue University, where he completed his MBA (MSIA) in 1995.

In addition to these degrees, he has furthered his education by undertaking certificate programs in executive education at the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

Mr. Johnson’s career spans almost thirty years in the automotive and trucking industries, with over 40 percent of that time spent overseas. He first joined Honda of America as an industrial engineer in 1987, followed by other roles in industrial, manufacturing and specification engineering. In 1992 he moved to Honda Japan, where he was a launch liaison engineer and later took a role in charge of production planning and control.

After completing graduate school Mr. Johnson joined Chrysler, where he worked from 1995 until 1999 in a variety of positions, including international supply chain manager and material superintendent. With the formation of Daimler Chrysler in 1999, he then took on a pivotal role as a post-merger integration supply chain manager.

Within the Daimler Chrysler group, Mr. Johnson moved to Japan again from 2001 to 2004, where he acted as the global logistics supply executive general manager under the COO’s restructuring team for Mitsubishi Motors. From 2004 to 2005, he returned to the USA and was the procurement director for MOPAR, followed by a return to Japan for four and a half-year role at Mitsubishi Fuso trucks from 2006 to 2010 as global head of procurement and then global head of logistics.   From 2010 until his retirement Mr. Johnson was the general manager for aftermarket parts distribution for Daimler Trucks North America.