If Managing Director Bob Johnson, CFA, has an edge over anyone in finance, it’s a simple one: hard work. His willingness to knuckle down and sweat longer than anyone else out there has brought him a long string of accomplishments at an early age. He’s been a standout scholar, a published author as a graduate student, a tenured full professor of finance at 38, a tennis pro, a sub-3-hour novice marathon runner, and the achievement he prizes most of all: recipient of the 1994 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Student Award for Teaching Achievement at Creighton University.

That Johnson values a student award so highly shows what he holds most dear in life: education, knowledge, and people. His current role as head of the education division at CFA Institute brings all of these together in a way that allows his efforts to have a global impact.

“When I come to work I can feel really good about what we do,” he says. “Because it’s all about building peoples’ human capital, and that’s a wonderful thing.”

But the journey to this point would surely have been longer if it had not been for his unusual persistence. Early on that strength manifested itself on the college tennis court.

“That was kind of my forté in tennis,” he says. “I had a willingness to stay out on the court a long time. I was one of those guys that people didn’t want to draw in a tournament because they knew they’d be out there forever.”

Later his endurance emerged on the long, winding marathon course. He started running just to get in shape for tennis. But at his first marathon he turned in a remarkable time of two hours, 52 minutes. And that’s when his competitive nature kicked in. Just like in tennis, he pushed the sport as far as he could take it. (Today, his office walls are literally papered with race numbers from all the courses he’s run over the years.)

“If you’re competitive in one thing, I think you’re competitive in everything,” Johnson says. “I think that’s a really healthy quality.”

And while he admits that competition has a lot to do with why he works so hard, mostly his dedication is because of his own tenacity.

“It’s like running marathons. I don’t run marathons to prove to anyone else that I can do it. It’s a personal challenge. And going through the CFA Program was a personal challenge too.”

But it took a few years before Johnson knew about the gauntlet known as the CFA Program. Initially a history major as an undergraduate, Johnson started out with an idea that he needed to study something that made him “employable” in addition to something that he loved. So, he took some business courses. But once he found he was attracted to finance, he chased it with everything he had. And true to form, he graduated with a rare 4.0 grade point average, the highest possible.

Johnson immediately went on to graduate school, where his academic achievement brought him the opportunity to work as a teaching assistant. There, he observed the professor’s life and decided he “wouldn’t mind doing that,” and thus began a bright career in academia. Intellectual curiosity aroused in him the same drive that he brought to sport. Soon, articles of his were being published in some of the most respected journals in finance. In fact, the Journal of Finance accepted for publication a chapter of Johnson’s dissertation even before he graduated.

And while pursuing a PhD at University of Nebraska, he taught students as a full-time faculty member of Creighton University. And here again, Johnson’s intensity took over.

“I always used to tell people I can’t believe I get paid to do this,” he said of his years as a professor. “You actually got to see how you could positively impact people’s lives and how their lives changed.”

The advice he gave to students who wanted a career in investment management reflected his own choices.

“You want as many arrows in your quiver as you can have, because the investment management business is very competitive,” he said. “This is survival of the fittest to a large degree. And you want to build your human capital. And I don’t just mean lines on a resume. I mean the knowledge that’s behind that.”

His enthusiasm and dedication inspired students to vote him as the best professor universitywide in 1994. It also inspired students to keep in touch with him after graduation. “I enjoy hearing about the progress former students are making in their careers and lives. Very seldom does a week go by without getting a phone call or e-mail from a former student.”

What drew him to the CFA Program was that he wanted to apply all that he had learned, both as a student and as a teacher, in practice. In early 1989, he started a money management firm and immediately enrolled in the CFA Program.

“I got a great academic education,” he says, “but didn’t have a solid grounding in practical finance. The practical orientation was what really sold me on the CFA Program.”

Although he soon sold the money management firm, he continued his work in education, earning tenure in 1992, just four years after completing his PhD. Meanwhile, he continued publishing, accumulating more than 25 publications before he was promoted to full professor in 1996.

He was lured away from academia by what he thought was a brief stint in charge of the CFA Program curriculum. He took a leave of absence from university life in 1996 and joined the staff of CFA Institute, where he worked his way up to his current role as managing director overseeing all aspects of education delivered by the organization.

He now admits that he was struck by the people more than anything else. “The first meeting that I went to, I met some of the nicest brightest people from all over, from all over. And I think it’s the network that CFA Institute has that is unparalleled anywhere else. It’s still the best part of the job — the people that you meet.”

He says his job at CFA Institute is much like being a professor, but on a far larger scale.

“This organization has a tremendous impact, and it’s all centered around education,” he says. “CFA Institute is the nexus of education and practice."

That particular meeting place turns out to be a level playing field where those who want to achieve are given the opportunity and simply need to prove their worth.

“The CFA Program is the ultimate meritocracy,” Johnson says. “You’re judged on how you do on the exams — period. The judgment isn’t clouded by what your pedigree is; it isn’t clouded by who your father was or who your mother was or what social strata you came from. It’s how you score on the exams and everyone has an equal chance. I love that.”

And, as any veteran athlete knows, the payoff is great when you’ve done your best.

“There’s an adrenaline rush too when you’re finishing a marathon — it’s a sense of real accomplishment. It’s akin to the feeling that you got when you logged onto the website (or opened the letter back in my day) and you found out you passed the 3rd level of the CFA exam. That’s exhilaration.”