A Family Man: Steve Johnson Built His Legacy on Enduring Connections

The factoring industry lost one of its most prominent figures in September, as Steve Johnson, president of J D Factors, passed away due to complications from prostate cancer. Johnson became a legend in the industry by treating his employees and clients as family and making that an integral part of everything he did, both inside and outside of the office.

BY PHIL NEUFFER

As an old saying goes, you don’t get to pick your family, but for Steve Johnson, the former president of J D Factors, that wasn’t exactly true. Johnson’s professional life was largely influenced by the family he did have, including his father-in-law John Danis, who gave him his start in the factoring industry. However, Johnson didn’t just form familial connections with those with whom he shared a legal relation. Johnson also made sure every employee and client he ever worked with was treated just as well as anyone sharing the Johnson (or Danis) name.

“Family was No. 1 in his life and it’s always been,” Matt Johnson, co-president of J D Factors and Steve Johnson’s son, says. “And J D Factors is just another family that was No. 1 in his life and in many of our lives.”

Steve Johnson tragically passed away on Sept. 3 due to complications from prostate cancer, but his legacy both as a co-founder of J D Factors and within the factoring industry at large will continue on, primarily because of the way he treated others both inside and outside of his chosen family.

“My coworkers would, to a person, agree that they are treated like family,” Chip Wiley, senior vice president of operations in Chicago for J D Factors, says. “The business provides phenomenal benefits to the employees and just is a great place to work. And that’s really a testament to Steve and his family because that’s where the culture was nurtured and brought along.”

FAMILY FIRST

Steve Johnson’s company, J D Factors, is very much an extension of that family-centric point of view. He originally founded it with Joyce Danis, John Danis’ wife and Johnson’s mother-in-law, following John Danis’ death in 1998. However, the combination of the Johnson and Danis families began long before then.

Johnson married Janalee Danis, John and Joyce Danis’ daughter, in 1976 but spent the first 15 years or so of his professional career in banking rather than factoring, the industry in which his fathe-rin-law made a living. During those 15 years, Johnson held roles at multiple institutions in Southern California, including Mercury Savings and California Commerce Bank. He was drawn to banking, and eventually factoring, due to his love of numbers, according to Matt Johnson.

After 15 years in banking, and plenty of encouragement over the years from John Danis, Steve Johnson joined his father-in-law at Riviera Finance in 1990, ultimately beginning his path in the factoring industry.

“I think it was kind of his father-inlaw’s plan to get him exposure to the business and then move him into corporate management,” Wiley says.

It was at Riviera Finance that Steve Johnson got to know Wiley and further cement his relationship with Bo Kelly, who serves as co-president of J D Factors today with Matt Johnson. Of course, Kelly’s connection to Steve Johnson and the Danis family went back much further, as he grew up across the street from the family and remembers Janalee Danis as his first babysitter.

“I tell people I’ve hit the lottery in life twice. Once when I met my wife, Jennifer, and the other because I grew up across the street from the Danises,” Kelly says.

A BOSS, A BROTHER, A FATHER

Both Wiley and Kelly became longtime business partners of Steve Johnson, but each viewed their relationship with him as much more than that.

“He initially reported to me. So, it was kind of interesting. Our initial relationship was [that] I was the boss and that he was the employee,” Wiley says, noting that Johnson brought him on at J D Factors in 2002 but only waited so long because of a two-year non-solicitation agreement with Riviera Finance.

Kelly’s relationship with Johnson also evolved over the years, ultimately becoming one of the most central in Kelly’s life.

“Steve was like my brother, and then my dad passed away in 2003, and he went from being my pseudo brother to my pseudo father,” Kelly says. “So our relationship had changed a lot over the years, from workmates to where I felt like he was my brother, to at the end, I felt more like he was a father figure to me.”

Despite being a family figure to so many within his company, Johnson was still the boss at J D Factors, but his integrity, genuine nature and openness made him stand out above other company leaders.

“Steve was honestly the nicest, just the kindest person I’ve ever met,” Wiley says. “He learned from his mistakes. He led his employees. He wasn’t afraid to give his coworkers, his employees, his staff, responsibility.”

“I never in my life met a more genuine, honest, level-headed person than Steve,” Kelly says. “We talked about everything continually every day and we didn’t always in the beginning see the same way, but by the time we were done, we always did.”

For Matt Johnson, his father was an exceptional boss in good times and bad.

“It was always very easy to go in and talk to him and ask him questions, especially when I was just learning how to do all this stuff. And he’d let me vent and yell when I had to deal with terrible clients or terrible debtors,” Matt Johnson says. “Was I ever angry with my boss? Probably. Was I angry with my dad? No, not really.”

Such a mentor-like approach was what Matt Johnson and his sister Melinda came to expect from their father. For example, when Matt Johnson started playing soccer as a child, Steve Johnson read up all he could on the unfamiliar sport so he could coach his son’s team. Steve Johnson also played a prominent role in the Boy Scouts of America, serving as scoutmaster for his son’s troop, with Matt Johnson eventually going on to become an Eagle Scout and a scoutmaster himself.

“He was the best dad,” Matt Johnson says. “I mean, I’m sure your dad’s good, but he wasn’t Steve Johnson.”

LEAVING A LEGACY

Steve Johnson, whose father was a United Methodist minister, also served on the board of trustees of the Claremont School of Theology, and on top of all that, he found time to be a board member for the American Factoring Association and an active member of the International Factoring Association and the Commercial Finance Association (now SFNet). Through his work with the IFA and AFA, as well as his time with Riviera Finance and J D Factors, Johnson built quite a representation and legacy in the factoring world.

“Steve’s legacy with factoring is that you can have a super successful company and grow it from nothing to where we are now and be a nice guy and get along with people,” Kelly says.

“There are an awful lot of people throughout the factoring industry that trace their roots either directly back to Riviera or to J D,” Wiley says. “And a lot of our competitors are people that either had a direct relationship working for Steve or his family or working for people who worked for Steve and his family.”

Steve Johnson’s legacy will live on beyond J D Factors in part because of the lessons he taught to his children, particularly his son, who has followed in his father’s footsteps. After attending the University of the Redlands, his father’s alma mater, Matt Johnson rose through the ranks at J D Factors to become co-president with Kelly. The two both share the goal of continuing to serve clients with a family-oriented perspective.

“We’re not just a faceless company. We want to be a part of our clients’ lives and help them along the way,” Matt Johnson says, crediting his father for this company philosophy.

“We really, really care and that’s not just some soap box BS or whatever. We really do care,” Kelly says. “And that’s a reflection of Steve.” •