Leadership Team

As Chief Executive Officer of Aurora WDC, he invests most of his time guiding the overall strategy of the business and directing the firm’s external consulting opportunities with clients. Prior to this promotion in March 2010, he served the prior seven years as Chief Operating Officer and Director of Research with the firm. Prior to joining Aurora in 2003, Mr. Johnson was in the Investment Management industry as an account and portfolio manager. He served as Wisconsin’s SCIP chapter co-chair from 2007-2009 and remains on the steering committee, was Program Chair of the 2009 SCIP International Conference, and is a SCIP Catalyst Award recipient.

Phone: +01 (608) 268-3470
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Twitter: Follow @DLJAlpha

Arik Johnson is Chairman of Aurora WDC, the intelligence research, systems and training advisory firm he founded in 1995. After stepping aside as CEO in late 2009, today Mr. Johnson focuses on the development of competing hypothetical solutions to seemingly intractable intelligence problems. He works with organizations of all kinds to develop a performance-driven organizational reconnaissance apparatus to monitor, detect, interpret and anticipate changes in the business environment that could help them outperform their peers.

Phone: +01 (608) 630-4242
Personal Blog: ArikJohnson.com
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Twitter: Follow @ArikJohnson

John Thomson joined the company in early 2005 and has more than 17 years of experience in the field of corporate intelligence and counterintelligence. Based in Atlanta, his role as Chief Research Officer focuses on managing the field intelligence collection efforts of our research teams, with final decision-making capability on the composition of the research teams and the ongoing directives of their efforts. He also manages our network of overseas research partners. Over the course of his career, he has worked hundreds of intelligence projects for a multitude of Fortune 500 and Global 2000 clients across more than 15 different industries. Prior to joining Aurora, Mr. Thomson worked several years in field operations as an intelligence collector for multiple firms and also spent 12 years with a leading technology company where he built and managed their competitive intelligence program. His academic achievements include a B.S. in Marketing from American University in Washington, D.C., MBA coursework at Monmouth University in Long Branch, NJ, and the Georgia Private Investigator program at Gwinnett Technical College in Lawrenceville, GA.

Phone: +01 (770) 519-2560
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Twitter: Follow @JohnThomson67

Greg Ervin serves as CTO at Aurora WDC, a global intelligence organization headquartered in Madison, WI. Reporting to the CEO, he is responsible for the oversight of all endeavors that couple technology and human analysis, including the FirstLight® Intelligence Platform. He takes a hands-on approach to the FirstLight technology roadmap and implementation of new features – both client-facing as well as foundational technology. Mr. Ervin believes that his personal approach to addressing client needs leads to a more responsive, and ultimately higher-value, technology solution.

Phone: +01 (651) 262-4282
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Twitter: Follow @AuroraGreg

Dr. Craig S. Fleisher is the Chief Learning Officer at Aurora WDC. A widely published and one of the globe’s most highly cited authors of fourteen books including Business and Competitive Analysis 2nd Ed. (Pearson, 2015), SAGE Handbook of International and Corporate Affairs (2017), Analysis Without Paralysis 2nd Ed. (FT Press, 2013), Competitive Intelligence and Global Business (Praeger, 2005), Strategic and Competitive Analysis (Pearson, 2003), and 150+ scholarly articles and book chapters, he has twice been a business school dean and endowed university research chair holder. Dr. Fleisher uses this deep background in intelligence methods to show both practitioners and organizations how to grow professionally and continually improve their results.

Phone: +01 (608) 630-5869
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Twitter: Follow @CraigFleisher