Dana Johnson is a senior-level executive search professional based in Silicon Valley. She started her recruiting career over 20 years ago at the well-known search firm BridgeGate Group, leading a large team of executive recruiters who conducted retained search for high-technology companies. During this period in the 1990’s, Dana established many venture-backed, pre-IPO start-ups as well as large corporations as clients.
In 1998, Dana launched Leland Group, a boutique executive search firm that specialized in Vice President of Engineering and CTO positions. She managed all operations and executive recruiting for the firm. She and her team conducted Vice President level searches including Partner searches for Venture Capital, and established Leland Group as a much respected firm that was completely dedicated to clients.
I am continually amazed at her energy level, her grasp of what makes Silicon Valley companies tick and what it takes for a leadership team to overachieve. Dana is one of the most professional, articulate and hardest working executives I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. I would not hesitate to recommend her to help your company drive results.”
—Karen Neely Reed, The TAS Group/Cisco Systems/Oracle
In 2006, Dana merged her practice with Ken Virnig of Devine and Virnig, and continued a focus on retained, C-level and VP level searches for technology companies. That partnership continued until 2010 upon Ken’s untimely passing. She continued recruiting and founded 12.12Partners in 2014.
Prior to this, Dana brought years of computer industry and sales experience to her recruiting profession. She worked in Production Management for companies such as Intel Corporation, American Hospital Supply, and Minolta Corporation. APICS certified, she received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Davis. Dana has taught recruiting classes for the UC Santa Cruz Extension Program, and for companies in high technology, including clients and other recruiting firms. Dana also works closely with the Myelin Repair Foundation (www.myelinrepair.org), an organization that is accelerating collaborative medical research globally. She hired their Chief Development Officer and other executives in the organization. For fun, she loves golfing and horseback riding.
