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It was only two days after he had been nominated by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) to be the new secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development, so Christian S. Johansson was feeling his way — on some questions — about DBED issues.

In an interview Tuesday in his new office overlooking Baltimore's Inner Harbor, he carefully sidestepped comments about the progress of negotiations for the Hilton Corp. to move its operations from California to the East Coast, saying he was too new on the job. The hotel company said Thursday it had picked Northern Virginia over Montgomery County.

But, while saying DBED would continue to pursue opportunities to attract out-of-state companies, Johansson indicated his priority was not necessarily putting all the department's resources into that effort, and would instead focus on businesses already in the state; retaining them and their jobs; and asking them how the state can help them expand, fill gaps in their workforce or better train their workers.

"We are going to focus our energies on home state companies, on making sure they are able to not just to survive but to thrive," said Johansson, 36, who is leaving his position as managing director of Baltimore private equity firm Continental Equity to take the DBED post. "With me coming into DBED right now, it's clear to me there is a palpable fear in the marketplace that is affecting business decisions, because we are going through the greatest recession since the Great Depression.

"So we have a charge to make sure that the true story of Maryland's performance is told: that we are doing significantly better than other areas of the country, because of our knowledge-based companies, our commitment to education, our workforce … and our unemployment rate is 20 percent less than the country overall. Our mission is to make sure that story is told accurately, told swiftly and told continuously, that Maryland has been stable, a safe place to invest and continues to be one of the premier locations for you to expand and develop your business."

Somewhat of a wunderkind in Baltimore and state economic development circles, he stands in contrast to his predecessors as DBED secretary: veteran economic development chief David W. Edgerley, and before him veteran businessman-engineer Aris Melissaratos. What Johansson brings to DBED is several years as a businessman and as a business advocate during his time as president and CEO of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore.

He also brings a link to the new administration in the White House. He was a member of President Obama's Executive Committee for Urban and Metropolitan Policy during the presidential campaign and an adviser to Obama's transition team — ties which he indicates may help the state get a good portion of the $900 billion stimulus bill being debated in Congress.

The Business Gazette talked to Johansson, whose confirmation by the state Senate is expected within 30 days, about his priorities as DBED secretary.

In the governor's proposed budget, DBED is taking a hit in funds for marketing. Isn't that a key area in getting your message out?

Well, at DBED there is a shift that's happening here and that's realizing when we're in a national and potentially global recession we have to think about and sort of change how we think about marketing. That's why I am saying we have to be more strategic about those marketing efforts and pull back and focus directly on the state of Maryland.

So there will not be as many trade missions internationally or domestically?

We're going to build on our successes. But at the same time, to spend a significant amount of dollars outside of the state in an environment where people are just trying to hold on and no one is listening, is not a very productive use of dollars.

I think we have to look at our main priorities right now, specifically to restore business confidence on why to invest in Maryland, and we have the data to show why that's a good idea. One of the things is, if you look at the shift of jobs, here in Baltimore, for example, 20, 30 years ago, the largest employer in Baltimore was Bethlehem steel. Today it's Johns Hopkins, and now, most of the jobs that are here are scientific, professional and technical jobs. It's been a quiet, steady, continual transformation, and I don't think it's just Baltimore. If you look at the entire state, this has truly become a knowledge-driven economy.

When we look at the Maryland story, what's shaping the economy today, the silver lining here is even in times of challenges, the state of Maryland has continued to significantly outperform the overall U.S. economy and what's interesting is we've done that in the up market and now we're really continuing to do so in the down market. Obviously the reason why we've done so well is some of our core investments … our knowledge-based companies, and the investments we've made in education, in both K through 12, and the higher education level.

One thing you want to do is revive the Maryland Economic Development Commission?

Yes, because that's been inactive. One thing you are going to see is proactively involving and listening to business. One of my first acts here is going to be to restore the commission [a public-private partnership that seeks to enhance economic development but inactive in recent years] and obviously we will seek to pull businesses and key stakeholders from the state to that body. But we're also going to look at restoring and creating advisory boards for other key areas that are important to the growth of our economy.

And I can tell you that we are going to look to do something similar around federal facilities, things that are critical to Maryland's growth, and we want to create a structure, a process to involve the business community in those areas because we need their ideas, and they need to have a sense that they are listened to, that they have a voice in Annapolis. It's critical for us they have a seat at the table and the best ideas and policies are advocated to grow those companies.

And does that include biotech? How much experience have you had in the bioscience area, or been in Montgomery County where biotech is so big?

Well, as secretary, we have to look at all the core industries and bio is obviously one of the cores. I know a little bit about it, I was supposed to be M.D. Ph.D., and I did go to medical school, but I left medical school to start a business and then ended up in business school. But I grew up in an environment where [the] first book I got was a pathology book, when I was 3 years old, with pictures, from my father. Both my parents are in academia. My father is M.D. Ph.D. and my mother is a nurse and Ph.D. and department chair at Johns Hopkins. And I was a biology major at Brown … and the first two companies I was involved in, one was [involved in] taking a patented tool for the first standardized way to measure pain … and I did health-care consulting.

When the governor came out with his Bio 2020 bioscience initiative, some thought there was some favoritism shown toward promoting that in Baltimore, over Montgomery County. What do you think about that?

When I talk to the governor, the governor tells me it's "One Maryland," that's the philosophy and the vision that we think about in terms of what's here. What's fascinating is you take Boston, where they have this highway where you drive out to another area where all the technology companies are … Boston considers that the same market and it takes the same time, about 45 minutes, to drive there, as it does to get from Montgomery County to Baltimore.

In our own minds we've created a division here, but the fact is they are so complementary because if you look at it, you've had the 270 corridor which has been sort of an area of commercialization, with the companies that have been built and set up there, and been successful, and then you have the cutting-edge science, whether at Johns Hopkins or the University of Maryland.

What you are seeing here, in Baltimore, is an effort to make sure commercialization can happen right here as well as in Montgomery. But actually, we've had examples of companies that have relocated from Montgomery County to a Baltimore biopark, and there's another one that actually was incubated at Hopkins and then moved to Montgomery County.

So you can't really say how dollars and people are going to flow. The only thing you can say is if we work together around this, we're going to have a more efficient, higher performing economy, and obviously bio is a big piece of that.

Are you taking a pay cut to take this job, from a private equity company like Continental? Why give up working in venture capital, helping minority businesses, something that is a goal of yours, to come into public service and be at the beck and call of legislators, newspapers, etc.?

This is hard to explain, but everything that everyone does doesn't have to be motivated by money. [Laughs] I know that that's a strange concept out there sometimes, but to me, if you ask the citizenry what is the number one priority of the state, you'd have: "It's the economy, the economy, the economy." DBED's mission today is more important than it ever has been.

What made you take root here

in this area? Where are you from

originally?

I was born in Sweden. My mom [from North Carolina] was an exchange student in Sweden and met my father. He was a med student, and they came over here to get married, then went back to Sweden, so I was born there. Later, we moved to Nebraska, where my dad got a position at the University of Nebraska medical school.

What's interesting is, when I came here [to attend the University of Maryland medical school], I realized it's probably the best location in the world. You're right next to Washington, you have proximity to New York and Philadelphia … but you don't have the headaches of those cities, frankly. You've got the cultural institutions, and you've got for me, the ability, because of my ties to Europe as well, to get on a plane and fly very quickly to Sweden.

And there's a history and time of place here. You go to a lot of newer American cities; it feels like everything was built yesterday. If you take a tour of Fort McHenry, for example, immediately you sense sort of the spirit of Americana here. I've always loved that about Baltimore.

Christian S. Johansson

-Position: Secretary-designate, Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

-Previous positions: Managing director, Continental Equity, a Baltimore private equity firm; president and CEO, Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore; senior consultant, Sag Harbor Group, Boston; co-founder, software company Inka.net; co-founder, medical device company Dola Health Systems.

-Education: Bachelor's, biology, Brown University; MBA, Harvard Business School.

-Residence: Baltimore.

-Family: Single. Mother, Fannie Gaston-Johansson, professor and chairwoman, Department of Acute and Chronic Care, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.

-Organizations: Executive committee, The Hippodrome, Baltimore; board of visitors, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

nHobbies: Traveling, the theater.