Eric B. Johnson is the Co-Founder and President of Youth Development Now (YDN), and a business leader, coach, youth advocate, and recognized mentor in his community.

The mental and physical health challenges facing our youth in today’s digital and highly connected environment are truly unprecedented. Eric co-founded YDN to help youth learn how to properly deal with these challenges by using athletics as a vehicle for positive change.

One of Eric’s lifelong passions is coaching basketball. He was fortunate enough to learn the game of basketball from a handful of incredible coaches, including former University of Utah Associate Head Coach and Westminster College Head Coach Tommy Connor, whose philosophies and highly detailed preparation evolved from those of long-time University of Utah coach Rick Majerus. Other coaching mentors in Eric’s career include Utah Valley University Head Coach Todd Phillips as well as former Utah State University and University of Utah Assistant Coach Chris Jones.

Most recently, Eric served as a Jr. NBA clinician at the 2023 NBA All-Star weekend, where he helped coach and teach thousands of kids through the Jr. NBA program. Additionally Eric was one of only two Jr. NBA coaches selected to run the NIKE + FUTURE clinic at All-Star Weekend, where Boys & Girls Club’s from the greater Salt Lake City area came together, learned basketball from NBA players, and worked with the FUTURE team to design their own custom apparel. The camp featured NIKE athletes Tyler Hero, Buddy Hield, Collin Sexton, and a number of additional current and retired NBA players.

Eric is also the co-founding partner of Utah Top 50, which hosts elite level leagues and showcase events for the top players in Utah and surrounding states.

Eric has spent thousands of hours coaching kids, including coaching more than 800 youth basketball games all over the United States, as well as hundreds of one-on-one and group player skill development sessions. He’s coached all youth age groups, from nationally recognized elite 17U basketball teams to kids as young as six years old, who are just learning to love the game of basketball. Eric holds coaching certifications from USA Basketball and the NCAA.

Eric has helped run youth camps in multiple cities, including Oakland, California and his hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah. He has an intimate knowledge and understanding of the elite athlete recruiting process and has hundreds of college coach connections. He’s coached hundreds of top players at tournaments across the country and has truly been blessed and fortunate to help develop some of Utah’s brightest young basketball players.

In 2005, Eric became a coach for Utah Pump-N-Run, now called Utah Basketball Club Elite (UBC Elite), one of Utah’s leading basketball club teams. Today, he sits on the board of directors where he contributes to organizational development, including fundraising, executive process, and organic club growth. UBC Elite has helped secure grant-in-aid scholarships to play college basketball for more than 225 student-athletes to date.

Professional Experience

Along with his duties as a youth basketball coach and at YDN, Eric co-founded a successful business strategy firm where he focuses on building new business enterprises, strategic online marketing advisory, and mergers and acquisitions for clients globally. In this role he has generated more than $100m in online transactions for clients over 15+ years, and frequently sits as a shared Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Growth Marketing Executive for clients in growth-mode.

Prior to becoming a full-time executive advisor, Eric helped manage the billionaire Sorenson Family’s portfolio of investments as the Director of Marketing and Corporate Business Development for The Sorenson Group. There, he oversaw all marketing and communications and strategic partnerships that created long-term return on investment (ROI) opportunities for the company.

Preceding his position at The Sorenson Group, Eric was the Director of Marketing at Sorenson Communications, the nation’s leading relay services provider for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. There, he helped lead the development of a national outreach program that was directly responsible for more than 20% of the company’s qualified revenue source.

Eric also has extensive large-scale and corporate event planning experience. He oversaw the first-ever United States Senate and House of Representatives Video Relay Service (VRS) demonstration in Washington, D.C., that took place on Capitol Hill and featured actress Marlee Matlin along with several United States Senators and Congressman. He has also managed a variety of other unique events and fundraisers on behalf of the PGA and other organizations. At the 16th Winter Olympics for the Deaf, he worked with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), where he served as a chief liaison between the Games Organizing Committee and multiple event sponsors including AT&T, Avis, and AOL.

Eric lives and primarily works in Salt Lake City, Utah. He holds a B.S. in Business and Marketing from Westminster College in Salt Lake City where he played basketball and achieved Academic All-Conference honors for two consecutive years. Eric is married (Marcie) with three boys and one girl.