• Baylor grad named president of influential Christian publisher

    Tyndale House President Jeff Johnson & CEO Mark Taylor

    A Baylor alum who started in the stockroom of a growing company in the 1980s is now the president and COO of that same company — which just so happens to be the largest private publisher of Christian books in the world.

    Last month, Jeff Johnson, BS ’85, was named president and chief operating officer of Tyndale House, a longtime publisher with a roster that includes bestsellers like the Left Behind series, popular devotionals and Bible adaptations like The Living Bible and The One Year Bibleand memoirs of sports figures such as Emmitt Smith, Drew Brees and Tony Dungy.

    Johnson’s journey from the stockroom to the executive suite at Tyndale began shortly after his graduation from Baylor. He joined the company as a stock runner in 1986 and was elevated to director of human resources two years later. By the late 1990s, he was serving as vice president of publishing services; in that role, he led the publishing division in a strong growth period, spurred by the success of the Left Behind series, which sold over 60 million copies.

    Tyndale was founded nearly six decades ago by Dr. Kenneth Taylor, whose goal was “to make Scripture accessible to all people.” Johnson is just the third president in company history, following Dr. Taylor and his son, Mark, who has been promoted to CEO and chairman of the board. (That’s Johnson pictured above at left, and Mark Taylor on the right.)

    Sic ’em, Jeff Johnson!