Elizabeth A. Johnston-Owens is a transformational business executive whose career has been defined by one consistent outcome: creating measurable value through operational excellence, strategic leadership, and disciplined execution. With more than 21 years of executive experience leading Fortune 500 organizations, high-growth enterprises, and business transformations, she has built an impressive reputation as a P&L leader who understands how to connect strategy with execution to produce sustainable financial performance. Her ability to improve profitability, strengthen organizational capabilities, and lead through periods of rapid change has made her a respected leader across healthcare, business services, mobility, transportation, and business-to-business operating environments.
Throughout her career, Elizabeth has embraced increasingly complex leadership responsibilities spanning operations, commercial strategy, workforce transformation, organizational design, and executive management. Rather than approaching business challenges from a single functional perspective, she has consistently integrated commercial growth initiatives with operational discipline, allowing organizations to simultaneously increase revenue, improve margins, and enhance customer experiences. This broad executive perspective enables her to understand how every functional area contributes to overall business performance and long-term enterprise value.
Most recently, Elizabeth joined FLO Growth Partners, where she serves as Fractional Chief Operating Officer, partnering with growth-stage companies, founder-led organizations, and professional services firms that are preparing for their next phase of expansion. In this role, she helps executive teams strengthen operational infrastructure, improve leadership alignment, optimize organizational design, and build scalable systems that support profitable growth. Her transition into fractional executive leadership also reflects her desire to leverage decades of Fortune 500 experience across multiple organizations while expanding her ability to contribute as a board member and strategic advisor.
Prior to joining FLO Growth Partners, Elizabeth served as Divisional Vice President and General Manager for Abbott Laboratories, where she held full P&L responsibility for a $450 million global business employing approximately 940 professionals across operations, commercial functions, and technology. Under her leadership, the business experienced remarkable financial improvement, including a 9.4 percentage-point increase in gross margin and an extraordinary 97 percent increase in operating income over a three-year period. Through disciplined pricing strategies, product innovation, digital enablement, operational efficiency initiatives, and commercial optimization, she demonstrated how strategic leadership can fundamentally reshape enterprise performance.
Elizabeth’s leadership at Abbott extended well beyond financial results. She successfully renegotiated more than $124 million in strategic customer contracts, securing multi-year renewals while improving contract profitability by as much as 13 percentage points. She also led a significant global workforce transformation that reduced organizational headcount by 25 percent while simultaneously improving revenue per employee by 45 percent and maintaining positive employee engagement. Her ability to balance difficult business decisions with servant leadership principles reflects her belief that sustainable business success depends upon both operational excellence and organizational trust.
Before assuming general management responsibilities, Elizabeth served as Senior Director of Global Workplace Operations at Abbott, where she oversaw worldwide operations supporting a $450 million employment testing business. She led large multidisciplinary teams across multiple global locations, improved cost of sales through labor optimization and supplier management, restructured departments to significantly improve key performance indicators, and earned Abbott’s prestigious President’s Award for designing an innovative hybrid sourcing model that strengthened operational flexibility while improving business performance. Her work consistently demonstrated an ability to build scalable systems capable of supporting both efficiency and future growth.
Elizabeth previously served as Regional Vice President and District Manager for Avis Budget Group and Zipcar, where she owned an $80 million regional P&L while overseeing two distinct operating businesses simultaneously. Charged with improving performance in competitive transportation markets, she successfully increased revenue, expanded gross margins, and improved EBITDA performance through disciplined operational benchmarking, product mix optimization, and accountability-driven business planning. Her success in turnaround environments reinforced her reputation as a leader who thrives when organizations require thoughtful transformation rather than incremental change.
Earlier in her career, Elizabeth spent more than a decade with Ecolab, steadily advancing through multiple leadership positions that expanded her expertise across field operations, customer management, workforce development, enterprise excellence, and commercial sales. Her accomplishments included driving millions of dollars in new business growth, leading nationwide operational improvements, implementing technology-driven efficiencies, and earning recognition as Corporate Account Manager of the Year, multiple President’s Club honors, Manager of the Year, and numerous leadership awards. These experiences provided the operational foundation that would later support her executive leadership across complex global organizations.
Elizabeth’s leadership philosophy is firmly grounded in servant leadership, accountability, and continuous improvement. She believes exceptional leaders create environments where people, processes, and strategy work together to produce lasting results. Her expertise spans business transformation, commercial strategy, pricing optimization, operational excellence, organizational design, workforce planning, digital automation, strategic planning, and executive team development. Whether leading global enterprises or advising entrepreneurial companies, she remains focused on aligning operational execution with financial performance while developing high-performing teams capable of sustaining long-term success.
Her international business experience includes executive collaboration throughout Mexico and the Philippines, providing valuable insight into managing culturally diverse teams and navigating global business operations. She complements this experience with an Executive MBA from Rockhurst University, earned with honors, and a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science from Valparaiso University, where she also completed minors in Business Administration, Psychology, and Music. This unique educational combination strengthens both her analytical decision-making and her people-centered leadership approach.
Beyond the executive office, Elizabeth is committed to serving organizations that create positive community impact. She currently serves as a Board Member for the Modern Family Alliance in Kansas City, reflecting her dedication to governance, advocacy, and organizational leadership beyond corporate environments. Personally, she enjoys performing music, attending live concerts, traveling, and spending quality time with her children. These interests reinforce the balance she brings to leadership while fueling the creativity, curiosity, and empathy that have become hallmarks of her executive style.
As Elizabeth continues expanding her board service, she offers organizations a rare combination of Fortune 500 executive leadership, entrepreneurial perspective, operational expertise, and proven value creation. Having successfully led owned large P&Ls, transformed complex organizations, navigated business turnarounds, and built scalable operational models, she brings practical experience that helps boards guide companies through growth, transformation, and evolving competitive landscapes. Her broad functional expertise, financial acumen, and collaborative leadership style position her as a trusted advisor capable of helping organizations unlock sustainable growth while creating lasting value for shareholders, employees, customers, and stakeholders alike.
Character:
Elizabeth leads with humility, integrity, and a servant leadership philosophy that consistently places people alongside performance. She earns trust by making thoughtful decisions, developing strong teams, and maintaining accountability through periods of significant organizational change.
Knowledge:
Her more than two decades of executive leadership encompass P&L management, commercial strategy, operational excellence, workforce transformation, and digital enablement across multiple industries. She possesses a comprehensive understanding of how operational decisions influence financial performance and long-term enterprise value.
Strategic:
Elizabeth excels at identifying opportunities to improve profitability while building scalable organizations prepared for future growth. She consistently aligns operational execution with strategic objectives, enabling organizations to navigate expansion, transformation, and turnaround situations with confidence.
Communication:
An experienced executive presenter and public speaker who communicates complex business challenges with clarity and purpose. Her collaborative communication style builds alignment among executive teams, board members, employees, and stakeholders while fostering trust and accountability throughout the organization.
