When Heather Johnson took a job answering phones for a hazardous waste firm while studying at Cal State San Marcos, she could have never known it would lead her to a career in the field and ultimately a position as CEO of Ingenium, a provider of comprehensive hazardous waste disposal services.
She came to San Diego while studying engineering at Cal State Poly in San Luis Obispo – not for career, but because she had a boyfriend at the time who was a Marine at Camp Pendleton. Since Heather did not love engineering, it was easy for her to decide to try something different.
While earning a degree in Business Administration at Cal State San Marcos, Heather discovered she had a talent for marketing to dentists and doctors with small practices. She helped found Advanced Chemical Transport, became Director of Sales and Marketing and in 2006 went into partnership to create Ingenium.
As the Escondido-based company grew, she found that the management-by-committee by a group of partners didn’t work efficiently or effectively. It was “clear only one person can run this company,” she said, and she ultimately took over as CEO.
Currently about half of Ingenium’s business is providing waste management services to biotech and pharmaceutical companies and its annual revenues in 2018 were $20 million. There have been bumps along the way as the company has grown. In 2015, revenue soared by about 50 percent to $15 million, but we had “no system or processes in place,” Heather said. The next year the company lost $750,000, in part because a key sales executive took clients to a different company. After “losing a lot of sleep” and an “overhaul in customer service and cost cutting,” she steered the company to a rebound in 2017 and 2018.
She credits her monthly meetings with fellow Sage members with helping her along the way. “There is a sense of accountability,” she said. “Things come up; I take the advice seriously and incorporate it into the business.”
In her personal life, her last name changed from Dody to Johnson after she married Corey Johnson, Director of National Accounts for Ingenium. They have 9-year-old son, Mason.