Then and Now: Cooperative business model a good fit for Mitchell Johnson

With a mantra of “never give up,” Mitchell Johnson cites persistence as one of his greatest attributes. His “competitive spirit and willingness to lead boldly during times of crisis” have enabled him to meet challenges through his 26 years as president and CEO of Ozarks Electric Cooperative.

One such challenge was the 2009 ice storm when Ozarks had about 60,000 meter locations, and 90% of those meters had no electricity.

“You have to manage through those crises boldly,” he said. “No matter what, we’re going to do the right things for our members and not be concerned about the cost of restoring service interruptions because we’ll figure out the cost later. What’s most important is getting our members electricity and doing that as quickly as you possibly can. That was a lesson for me during that time. A challenging time, it was also a rewarding time because I’m extremely proud of the people that work here and how hard they work. They knew our members come first.”

The cooperative business model fits Johnson “on a personal and professional level” because “it’s not about a short-term rate of return that you see in the investor-owned utility space,” he said. “Being owned by the people we serve is a very powerful business model because our interests are aligned when you are truly motivated by making improvements and improving quality of life for your customers, your member owners. It’s a long-term approach that fits me perfectly.”

A “culture of innovation and knowing what’s important to the people we serve and executing to those priorities,” are keys to his success, Johnson said, citing the 2017 launch of fiber-optic telecommunications subsidiary OzarksGo, which “improves quality of life” for customers by providing broadband for work, education and entertainment. It has 46,000 customers.

Johnson is proud of the cost reductions for members created by the 2019 trilateral agreement between Ozarks, the city of Fayetteville and Today’s Power, and helped Fayetteville achieve its renewable energy goals. The agreement developed a solar power and battery storage project that “discharged energy into our system when prices were extremely high. It enabled us to reduce costs for our members in a significant way.”

Increased demand for electricity due to artificial intelligence, data centers, electric vehicles and organizations converting from gas to electric heat are challenges ahead, Johnson said.

“The amount of demand for those facilities from an energy and electricity standpoint is something our industry hasn’t seen before,” he said. “So how can we meet demand and do it in a responsible way? That’s going to be something we have to embrace. We have to think outside of the box a little bit and look at different ways to acquire the capacity and the energy needs for those types of facilities. So, we’ve got to manage that responsibly and do it in a way that’s probably not the traditional way, which will be a challenge for our industry and a challenge for Ozarks Electric.

“At Ozarks and OzarksGo, what will not change is our mission and our purpose. More than likely everything else will change. So, you have to embrace that change, and you have to innovate around all the changes we see in our industry.”

Johnson graduated from the University of Arkansas with an accounting degree before joining a local auditing firm where Ozarks was one of his clients. Ozarks offered him a job as an accounting supervisor in 1991. In 1996 he was promoted to vice president and became president and CEO in 1999. Since then Ozarks has grown from about 49,000 meters to 93,000, and from 140 employees to 400. Revenue has increased threefold since Johnson took the helm.

A 2003 Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Forty Under 40 recipient, Johnson serves on the boards for Arvest Bank in Springdale and Northwest Arkansas National Airport. A past director of the Springdale and Fayetteville chambers, Johnson was chairman of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce in 2016 and won its Civic Service Award in 2022.

Johnson and wife Kelly, a tenured professor at the UA nursing school, enjoy their three grandsons and playing tennis in their spare time.