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Stanford GSB News

 

Pitch Johnson Receives Gold Spike Award

May 2007

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—Franklin (Pitch) Johnson Jr., who began teaching as a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is a 2007 recipient of the Gold Spike Award from the Stanford Alumni Association recognizing volunteer service to the university. Johnson is best known for teaching the first venture capital class at the School, beginning in 1979. Today he continues to serve as an adviser to students developing entrepreneurial business plans. Johnson runs his own venture capital firm, Asset Management Company of Palo Alto.

A native of Quincy, Ill., Johnson graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1946. He received a BS in mechanical engineering from Stanford in 1950 and an MBA from Harvard in 1952.