AHI Undergraduate Fellow Marta Johnson Hired by Semler Bossy Consulting

At Semler Bossy, Marta will help create plans to measure performance and to provide incentives for executives to pursue their company’s goals. Johnson majored in economics at Hamilton College and believes her interest in consulting grew out of her coursework. “I really enjoyed thinking about the issues brought up in my classes such as Industrial Organization, and I wanted to explore a variety of applications for them,” she remarked. “Executive compensation is also very much about incentives, which is something that really stood out to me about economics.

[AHI Charter Fellow] Professor James Bradfield, in particular, drove home to me how important incentives are in the workplace.”

Johnson credits the AHI for helping her to improve her critical thinking skills and to look deeper at problems, two skills that promise to be crucial throughout her career. She also thanks the AHI for challenging her to work on her articulation and public speaking abilities. “I’ve learned a lot, and have changed in ways I couldn’t have predicted, but for which I am very grateful. I hope the AHI continues to thrive and to make a difference in the lives of students.”

“Marta Johnson is a bright, industrious student who quickly acquired a comprehensive, and nuanced, understanding of both standard microeconomic theory, and the implications of microeconomics to the theory of financial markets,” observed Professor Bradfield.  “She easily applied the fundamental principles of the theory without becoming lost in the mechanics.  She is especially adept at understanding the effects of alternative structures of both markets and corporate governance on allocative efficiency (economic efficiency).With her keen understanding of the importance of implicit costs, I expect that Marta will be able to produce sophisticated insights, cogently articulated, for questions of policy and planning.”

“We’ve been very lucky with our undergraduate fellows at the AHI, commented AHI Resident Fellow Chris Hill, “and that tradition has continued with Marta Johnson. She’s always stepped up, always gone the extra mile. She’s smart, energetic, charming and mature. She represents the best of what we hope to achieve at the AHI. I’m delighted, but not at all surprised to hear that she’s landed a position with Semler Brossy. She has a terrific head for economics, and I know she’ll do as well there as she’s done here. I wish her every success, and have no doubt that she’ll achieve whatever she sets out to accomplish.”

“Marta Johnson will always be remembered as one of the AHI’s very special fellows,” added Robert Paquette. “She has served the AHI in many capacities and dazzled everyone along the way. She ranks near the top of her graduating class. Her work at the AHI with the Bertrand de Jouvenel reading group and her presentation of a paper on Jouvenel at a prestigious undergraduate conference opened doors for her to undertake graduate work in political science had she decided to go that route. She excelled as a summer intern for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, creating opportunities there for future AHI undergraduate fellows. When she leaves the AHI, she will go with our thanks as well as our blessings.”

And what about her future plans? “At the moment, I’m not sure,” Johnson said. “I want to get some working experience and then decide once I’m a bit more informed. Most likely, I’ll go back to school eventually, probably business school or maybe a PhD program. I had planned on law school for a while, and that’s not completely out of the picture either.”