Chad Johnson is a Managing Partner in Cherry Tree & Associates’ investment banking practice, where he has worked since 2007. At Cherry Tree, Chad advises business owners and executives in buy- and sell-side merger and acquisition negotiations, specializing in education companies, especially software and software-as-a-service companies. 

Chad has more than twenty years of experience building businesses and advising business owners. Previous experience includes being a founding investor and Chairman of the Board of Early Learning Labs (sold to Renaissance Learning), running an early-stage mobile software firm which he co-owned (Ultralingua), managing acquisitions for a publicly traded education technology company (PLATO Learning/Edmentum), and as an Analyst for a venture capital firm (Sherpa Partners). 

Chad currently serves on the Board of an edtech company in the foreign language space (Extempore) and is a member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). He received his BA and MBA from the University of Minnesota.