A. Wayne Johnson, a former financial services CEO, wrote a dissertation in his 60s on how students decide to take on debt
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos on Tuesday announced plans to appoint A. Wayne Johnson, a former executive in the financial-services industry, to run the $1.3 trillion federal student loan portfolio.
The position of chief operating officer of federal student aid has been vacant since May when James W. Runcie resigned, saying he couldn’t in “good conscience” lead the agency while it was facing rising scrutiny from the Trump administration about its management of the lending programs.
Dr. Johnson, who went back to earn his Ph.D. in educational leadership in his 60s, appears to have done his homework for the job. He wrote his dissertation on the weaknesses of the decision-making process students go through before they borrow tens of thousands of dollars to pay for college.
“There is more federal protection in place when you buy a car than there is when you sign up to take on student debt,” Dr. Johnson said in an interview on Tuesday. “It comes down to basic consumer protection.”
Dr. Johnson, 65 years old, worked in senior management at Visa and Deloitte before starting his own company, which captures credit-card transactions in real time and alerts card holders to better manage their accounts.
He said he was approached by the search committees of a couple of colleges that were looking for presidents but his lack of a Ph.D. worked against him so he began a program in academic leadership form Mercer University. He already held an M.B.A. from Emory University. His dissertation was titled: “Eyes Wide Shut: Understanding Private Student Loan Indebtedness.”
Dr. Johnson said a school’s responsibility is to first “do no harm,” by not loading students up with debt. Dr. Johnson said both for-profit and not-for-profit schools have room to improve.