Vandy Johnson

Vandy Johnson is now retired.  He is an award-winning business leader with broad experience in information technology (IT), engineering, distribution, transportation, manufacturing, sales, marketing, and marketing research.  A proven success in creating, refining, and expanding IT to accommodate rapid growth and transformation in global market-driven organizations.  Internationally recognized for building best-in-class global capabilities, creating innovative IT solutions and high-performance teams.

Vandy volunteers for the Climate Reality Project, the Sierra Club, and Second Harvest Heartland.   He is also the Managing Member of Sleeping Bear LLC, a sustainable family forest in central Minnesota.

 

Vandy Johnson is enjoying semi-retirement and is working as a volunteer with the Climate Reality Project, the Sierra Club, and Second Harvest Heartland.  

Vandy is currently the managing member of Sleeping Bear LLC, a sustainable family forest.

He was Vice President of Information Systems and Solutions Support at XRS, a leader in software solutions for the transportation industry, based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Vandy was responsible for providing the technology leadership and vision in the planning, development, and implementation of company-wide information systems, preparing for the extraordinary growth expected from the transportation compliance mandate. He led the development of the mobile-based XRS Software as a Service (SaaS) public and private cloud infrastructure. Additionally, Vandy led the Solutions Support group at XRS, providing customer-focused product support.  The Minnesota High Tech Association awarded XRS the Techne Award for Mobile Communications in 2013.

XRS was acquired by Omnitacs LLC, a Vista Equity Partners company, in September 2014.

Before joining XRS, Vandy was Vice President of global IT infrastructure and system support at Medtronic, a leader in medical technology based in Fridley, Minnesota. He was responsible for leading the development, implementation, and support of Medtronic’s global IT infrastructure, Field Sales Systems IT development and support, and SAP system support. He was also a member of Medtronic’s Global Technology Council.

Vandy led a global organization providing services in 120 countries.   He developed and executed a global service model that features follow-the-sun support with global, highly available, highly virtualized dyadic data centers in the US, Europe, and Asia. Internal costs consistently benchmarked at one-half to one-quarter of outsourced alternatives.

In 2009, Medtronic’s global infrastructure team won the SNW / Computerworld award for Best Practices in Virtualization and Cloud Computing and Nemertes Research Pilot House innovation awards in three categories: Best Overall IT-Innovator, Best Innovator for Sustainable Data Center, and Best Innovator for WAN/ ACS/ Branch Office. Also in 2009, 2010, and 2011 Medtronic IT was named one of Computerworld’s 100 best places to work and was cited as a member of the InformationWeek 500.

Vandy earned his BS degree in computer science and engineering from Michigan State University. Upon graduation, he joined General Mills, where he held numerous roles of increasing responsibility in IT, most recently as the leader of global information systems operations. In this role, he was responsible for worldwide IT infrastructure and system operations, including voice and data networks, security, enterprise data, computer operations, and technical services.  In 2006, his team won the Computerworld award for Best Practices in Infrastructure. 

In other roles at General Mills, Vandy was responsible for the company-wide SAP implementation; was a member of the Pillsbury acquisition and due diligence teams; led the General Mills – Pillsbury IT integration team; led corporate IT system development; was a member of the General Mills new ventures team; and at various times led General Mills Marketing information systems, Engineering, Manufacturing, and R&D information systems,  International IT, and IT infrastructure and operations. Vandy was an early industry leader in artificial intelligence (expert systems and neural networks) and data mining.  His work at General Mills led to two software patents.

Vandy also served in non-IT roles.  He led General Mills’ syndicated market research team and was the lead engineer for an automated storage and retrieval logistics system that included more than 40 robots.  After 25 years at General Mills, Vandy left to become vice president of global IT infrastructure at Medtronic.

In 2010, Vandy received the Michigan State University Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award for leadership through professional contributions, public service, and personal accomplishments.

Vandy has served on the board of directors of Genesys Works Twin Cities, Northside Family Connection, Michigan State University College of Engineering Alumni Association Board, retiring from the board as Vice-Chair,  MSU Department of Computer Science and Engineering Strategic Partners Council, University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management Executive Curriculum Advisory Board, Wayzata Boys Basketball Association,  Wayzata Public Schools Citizens Financial Advisory Council, and Wayzata Public Schools Citizens Technology Advisory Council.

In 2012, Vandy was elected to the board of Vandivort Properties Incorporated, a real estate holding company founded in 1957, serving as president and retiring as board chair in 2019.

He has served on advisory councils for Amazon AWS, VMware, Polycom, SAP, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Oracle, IBM, and ACNielsen.  He was also a member of the ICANN at-large advisory committee. 

Vandy was a member of the review team for the IEEE Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge and a contributor to the Microsoft Solutions Framework.

He is a senior member of the Association for Computing Machinery and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society of the IEEE, the Communications Society of the IEEE, and the ARRL. 

Vandy is a Certified Computing Professional. He holds a Technician Class operator license and a GMRS license from the FCC.

In his role as Managing Member of Sleeping Bear LLC, Vandy is a Member of the American Tree Farm System, Minnesota Forestry Association, and is a Minnesota Master Woodland Owner.

In 2024, Vandy represented the state of Minnesota for the Bioeconomy Trade and Study Mission from the United States and Canada to Finland.

Contact Vandy at vandy@sleepingbearllc.com