With over 15 years of experience in intelligence and risk advisory, Sam Johnson leads corporate intelligence assignments and complex investigations for global corporations, legal teams working across jurisdictions, and family offices. He also advises executives and organizations on protective intelligence, protective planning, and personal risk.

Before founding Sam Johnson Inc. in 2019, Sam spent more than a decade in a confidential intelligence and risk advisory role, conducting intelligence research, overseeing investigations, coordinating field operations, and advising on sensitive matters. That experience shaped the way he now directs the firm’s work, bringing research, investigation, field operations, and advisory judgment together within a single engagement.

Since establishing the firm, Sam has led corporate intelligence assignments involving organizations, counterparties, senior executives, and business relationships in Canada and internationally. His work has included examining the ownership and control of companies, developing background intelligence on executives and principals, tracing assets and commercial interests, and identifying undisclosed relationships, conflicts, and reputational concerns. He has also overseen investigations into suspected fraud, insider activity, internal misconduct, and deliberate disruption affecting corporate and industrial operations.

For legal counsel, Sam has directed investigations in support of complex disputes and litigation spanning multiple jurisdictions. These assignments have involved reconstructing disputed events, locating and interviewing individuals with relevant knowledge, testing competing accounts, tracing assets, examining relationships among the parties, and coordinating surveillance and field operations to gather and verify evidence.

In executive risk matters, Sam has led protective intelligence engagements from the initial assessment of a concern through protective planning and operational response. His work has included investigating potential threat actors, assessing indicators of intent, capability, and access, evaluating the exposure of executives and organizations, and planning for high risk events and terminations. When circumstances have required a physical response, he has directed protective surveillance, protective presence, and executive protection.

Sam sets the direction of the firm’s engagements and remains closely involved in the analysis of the intelligence developed. His work brings together research, human source inquiry, field investigation, and independent assessment to establish what occurred, determine who and what matters, and advise on the implications.

Sam holds a Master of Arts in Criminology and Sociolegal Studies from the University of Toronto and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Social Science and English from York University. He is a licensed investigator authorized by Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General.