David Johnston

David Johnston is vice president of asset protection and retail operations for the National Retail Federation. In his role, he leads initiatives and member programs focused on asset protection and store operations, facilitating engagement across the industry and promoting best practices and policy initiatives around crime, violence, loss and issues challenging the profitability of retail store operations.

With over three decades of global loss prevention and corporate security expertise, Johnston’s experience includes senior roles with global retail and restaurant organizations as a practitioner, consultant and solution provider. He spent the last eight years as the senior global security executive leading loss prevention, global security and fraud initiatives for Inspire Brands, an international restaurant company representing 32,000 restaurants across seven brands, with locations across 65 countries. Before joining Inspire Brands, Johnston served hundreds of retailers across various segments as a loss prevention consultant with LP Innovations.

Based in Massachusetts, Johnston has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and will graduate in June 2023 with a master’s degree in security studies focused on industry and economical security.