Unfulfilling executive career? Transform it before it traps you.

When a family crisis took me out of school at 14 to get a full-time job, it sparked a journey across many industries, roles, and nations.
 
Office work, construction, and self-employment in Australia. Study in the UK. Ministry in Africa. Sales and executive roles in the US. And yet others.

I led the transformation of Arby’s to become one of the world’s fastest-growing restaurant chains. Rated in the Top 10 of over 3,000 franchise systems in the US, with a new location opening every 39 hours. 

When a takeover harmed the culture, I resigned to find a meaningful new path. But then my income was nearly tripled and I stayed on. 

Two years later, I resigned again, to buy or create a business aligned with my values.
I sought strategic, executive-level career support. And couldn’t find it. 

In that gap, I finally recognized my calling. So in 1992, I became a pioneer in this field. 

In 2014, a failed project left us with inadequate capital, and I turned the business over to a consortium of colleagues and clients. They closed it in 2016. In the meantime, I had created and launched a more resilient model. 

Today, our stressed societies desperately need more leaders motivated and able to reform management structures that undervalue higher needs and promote lower ones. 

If you’re ready to reimagine what your career can be, and to align it with your best contributions, there has never been a better time to do so. 

Let’s explore what’s possible. 

📅 Schedule a conversation: https://rjacareers.com/schedule-a-call-rj/

Russell Johnson

Hexagon's Autonomy & Positioning division

- Design, develop, test and document antenna architectures, structures and PCBAs

- Certify products are delivered in accordance with the NovAtel Product Development
Process including design and test data peer reviews

- Diagnose malfunctions in existing products and make improvements or modifications to increase product reliability and/or manufacturability.

- Lead root cause analysis investigations and document corrective actions

- Support sales and marketing with product recommendations, new design suggestions, and
request for quote technical assistance

- Perform technical writing which may include proposals, reports, test procedures, and
specifications

- Assist in the planning, testing, and documentation of product performance against design,
robustness, manufacturability and regulatory requirements

Antenna Specialist

Sinclair Technologies: A Division of Norsat International

- Designed a beam-steering antenna array for maritime communications (Inmarsat) and global navigation (GNSS) (patent; 天线阵列; WO2022036564A1 ANTENNA ARRAY)

- Designed a novel collinear antenna array for small radome enclosures (patent in filing process; COST-EFFECTIVE WIDEBAND COLLINEAR ANTENNA ASSEMBLY ENCLOSED IN NARROW RADOME; 200921CN)

- Designed cross-polarized remote electrical tilt (RET) panel antenna for 5G base station system

- Designed dual polarized omni-directional antenna for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system

- Designed derivatives of collinear antenna arrays for public safety equipment (base stations) in International markets

- Project management for new products (NPI) according to ISO 9001

- I.D.I.E. (employee) Awards for Excellence and Innovation

Antenna Design Engineer

University of Alberta

-	Involved in project titled "Ultra-wideband microwave imaging system for rock and metal detection upstream of the crusher"

-	Prepare grant proposal.

-	Supervise graduate students.

Research Associate

Okanagan College

-	Trained college students in Communications, Embedded systems, C programming, Electrical circuits and Micro-controllers (Microchip PIC MCUs) courses.

-	Influenced the purchase of a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) and created seminar and new laboratories on the use of the VNA to characterize antennas, amplifiers and filters.

-	Instructor for Capstone projects; project management for final year student projects.

-	Official for RoboCup 2016; West Canada Junior League.

College Professor (Term)

-	Developed a quasi-isotropic antenna (patent pending; US 15/673,862 and Canadian 2,938,901).

-	Advised by Prof. Pierre Boulanger, P.Eng.

-	Developed a microwave tomography system for biomedical imaging application [filtered back-projection (iradon) algorithm with SAR focusing; achieved close to 5mm resolution].

-	Developed a UWB SAR imaging system for SAGD (oil-sands) process monitoring.

-	Developed a method to use transients in open ended waveguide for dielectric slab permittivity extraction.

-	Investigated antenna beam-steering using time-domain interference pattern (interferometry).

Postdoctoral Fellow

Faculty of Engineering, University of Alberta

Instructor for Electrical Circuits course (ECE 209) for the Spring/Summer Co-op students. Prepared course materials, delivered course, managed Lab. instructors and evaluated students' performance. Class size ~70.

Sessional Instructor

-	First to demonstrate a decade bandwidth (1 to 10GHz) circularly polarized UWB antenna design.

-	Won the Faculty Teaching Assistant award.

- Demonstrated robustness for contactless vital signs monitoring using circularly polarized UWB radar sensing.

-	Developed a method to extract the dielectric constant of arbitrarily shaped objects remotely for material mapping/imaging applications (free-space time-domain reflectometry). 

-	Performed genetic optimization routine for antenna feed network design.

-	Studied and established method for customized probe pattern correction for near-field anechoic chamber antenna measurements.

-	Designed 180 degree and 90 degree 3dB hybrid couplers operating from 1 to 10GHz.

-	Designed pulse generator circuit for low pulse repetition rates.

-	Implemented a time-expanded (equivalent-time sampling) architecture for UWB radar system.

-	Investigated the modeling of pulse radiation for broadband antennas.

-	Determined the link budget consideration for pulsed wireless systems.

Research Assistant

Institute for Infocomm Research

-	Developed a UWB radar localization system for an European defense company (industry project).

-	Led the engineering team to win the Tan Kah Kee Young Inventor's Award.

-	Developed a passive RFID system for networked inventory tracking for a Japanese logistics company (industry project; in collaboration with team from Institute of Microelectronics).

-	Knowledge transfer of the system design to a systems integrator.

-	Designed interference suppression filters for UWB systems using coupled resonators.

-	Designed a microstrip elliptic UWB band pass filter that fit within 1 sq. inch of RF PCB space.

Senior Research Officer

Nera Telecommunications Ltd

-	Product engineering for high volume microwave network point-to-point radio equipment (including technology transfer from US).

-	Developed 17GHz and 28GHz ODU module with sub-contractor (Remec).

-	Coordinated parts localization for cost reduction (achieved ~10% cost down).

-	Created test procedures for manufacturing line.

-	Managed engineering change documents (ECNs) and return merchandise authorization (RMAs) for product line.

-	Involved with the implementation of new Quality Management System (Windows .NET based).

-	Coordinated CSA type approvals for product revisions (engaged Spring Singapore).

-	Planned for production ramp-up with contract manufacturer (CM) and conducted second sourcing for CMs.

Senior Product Engineer (secondment)

Sanyo Manufacturing Corporation

-	Developed prototype RF boards for UMTS handsets.

-	Optimized antenna circuits for international roaming model for high volume cellular handset production.

-	Conducted receiver sensitivity tests in anechoic chamber for Japanese type approval standards.

- Designed LNA circuits through biasing and ports impedance optimization.

-	Designed PA circuit using load pull method.

Trainee

Supported and encouraged, to support and encourage.
                                                 .

taplio

The Battle

Russell Johnson

Kevin K.M. Chan

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