Tall and lanky, Johansson talks like a wonky business type already on message with O'Malley. When launching into a statistical rundown on the state's economy, he insists Maryland is better off than other states, a point frequently made by the governor. Unemployment is 20 percent lower than the national rate; sectors such as professional and technical services are actually growing.
Nonetheless, he says Maryland suffers from an image problem - that it's unfriendly to business. State officials for years have tried to dispel the perception, which stems in part from a high-tax reputation and from legislative initiatives such as an effort to require Wal-Mart stores to provide better health benefits for employees.
Johansson said he would use some relocation marketing dollars to reassure companies that are here already, using data to make the case that Maryland's economy is strong. Borrowing a phrase that O'Malley had for Baltimore when he was mayor, Johansson said the state suffers from "pathological modesty."
"Confidence-building measures can have a big impact in the short term for us," he said.
Johansson used the same strategy at the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, a partnership of business, government and educational institutions that markets the region. His small staff researched patents held by Johns Hopkins institutions, for instance, to help convince medical product or service companies that they should be based in Baltimore.
The alliance targeted the life sciences, information technology and financial services sectors, and it sought to promote Baltimore as having more in common with fast-growing Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, N.C., than with languishing Rust Belt cities such as Detroit.
Johansson "was quick to jump in on projects and always thought we could win," said Dick Story, chief executive officer of Howard County's Economic Development Authority.
In building his career, Johansson took a number of different turns.
After earning a biology degree from Brown University, he started two companies with his cousin, capitalizing on his mother's expertise and connections as a professor of nursing at the Johns Hopkins University. The companies were incorporated from her Mount Washington home.
One company, Dola Health Systems, sold to Swedish hospitals the painometer, a standardized way to measure pain patented by his mother, Fannie Gaston-Johansson. The other, Dola Consulting Services, landed a contract to improve patient protocols for a Swedish hospital after he persuaded Johns Hopkins to let him give a presentation to a visiting delegation.
