Elton Johnson, Jr.: A Combat Vetrepreneur

Being a business leader is a calling. One should not do it just because it is a job. It is a calling, and you have got to be involved in it with your head, heart, and hands. Your heart has got to be in the job; you got to love what you do; it should consume your consciousness. One such conscious and intuitive business leader is Elton Johnson, Jr., the Founder, Chairman and Former CEO of AmeriVet Securities, Inc. (“AVI”, “AmeriVet”).

“AmeriVet leads the way!”

AmeriVet Securities was formed in 1993 to take advantage of a new California law that placed disabled veteran owned and operated companies in the same special category as female and minority owned and operated companies. Elton Johnson, Jr., is a disabled veteran due to an injury he suffered during a parachute training exercise in 1988 when he was serving in a U.S. Army Reserve Special Forces unit (Green Berets).

Exemplifying Proficiency in the Financial Services Industry

Elton has 43 years of experience in the financial services industry. He started AmeriVet with a borrowed $1150 and in twenty-seven years as its CEO, he grew the company to forty full time employees and registered reps who altogether, generated over $8 million in annual gross revenues resulting in over $1 million in profit in 2020. The mission statement of AmeriVet Securities, Inc., read as follows: “A Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Business (SDVOB) and a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) that specializes in capital markets, public finance, agency trading, and other financial services for institutional clients and is committed to hiring and training U.S. military veterans and providing them with opportunities for advancement in the financial and corporate sectors.”

Effective use of Securities Platforms

AmeriVet Securities, Inc., is a full service, special category (SDVOB and MBE), institutional broker-dealer providing the highest, most dedicated, and most professional standards of service through its multiple lines of business for its institutional clients. The company’s cutting-edge solutions, which address all the needs of its customers, all deal with its focus on the most effective and expedient use of the latest financial/securities platforms in its industry that include both commercial and proprietary platforms. It prides itself on its reputation for the effective use of financial/securities platforms to service its clients and it is this reputation that sets it apart in the securities industry from the other special category broker-dealers.

Licenced Stockbroker

Elton Johnson, Jr., has been a licensed stockbroker for over forty-three years. He currently holds fourteen securities/commodities licenses putting him in a small unique group in the securities industry whose members hold, or have held, a dozen or more licenses. His mark upon the securities industry is that he is the first Main Principal of a broker-dealer to operate his company from a combat zone since World War Two. He also has the distinction of being the only Main Principal of a broker-dealer to have ever served in combat and have a price (bounty) put on his head. This happened twice: in Iraq in 2004 when he served as the official Paymaster for the Iraqi Armed Forces ($20,000 bounty) and in Afghanistan in 2011 when he served with the Afghan National Army Special Operations Advisory Group (ANASOAG; $1000 bounty).

Ensuring Great Success

Elton Johnson’s influence over his company comes in the form of the leadership skills and principles that he has applied to the successful operation of AmeriVet which he learned in the US Army and the US Marine Corps. Having completed several military leadership professional development courses during his military career, including courses from the US Army Command and General Staff College, and having been the Commanding Officer of two combat commands, Elton has applied all of what he has learned in the military to his business after noting the many similarities between success in the military and success in business. The great success of AmeriVet today is primarily due to the military experience and the military education of Elton Johnson. He has effectively applied both to ensure the success and growth of AmeriVet Securities, Inc.

Unprecedented Achievements

Relying on his experiences and training while serving in an U.S. Army Reserve Special Forces unit (Green Berets), Elton realized that building an efficient and highly capable corporate team was the key to the success of AmeriVet. Thus, when AmeriVet had its relaunch in 2018 after being inactive for over seventeen (17) years due to Elton’s wartime service, top priority was given to recruiting and building a top-notch corporate team. This strong emphasis on team building has greatly benefited AmeriVet. The result of concentrating on putting together an efficient and highly capable corporate team can be readily seen in the company’s current bottom line. In just two years (2018-2020), AmeriVet has increased its annual gross revenues by almost tenfold. It has also gone from being in the red to being in the black in just two years. Both financial feats are nearly unprecedented in the securities industry.

Supporting Veteran Community

At AmeriVet Securities, Inc., its idea of corporate social responsibility is to support, to the best of its ability, the veteran community, and the veteran service organizations (VSOs) that assists the veteran community. The best way it believes that it can support veterans is by employing as many veterans as it can and by doing all that it can do to support the veteran community and veteran service organizations.

Growth Oriented Approach

The future aspiration of AmeriVet is quite simple: to become the best and most successful Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Business (SDVOB) and Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) broker-dealer in the business. AmeriVet Securities, Inc., is the second oldest SDVOB in the securities industry and it is very proud of that distinction, but it is its goal to also be the best managed and the most successful SDVOB in the securities industry. The strategies that it is undertaking to achieve this goal all deal with detailed long-term planning, either regarding increasing current revenue streams or creating new revenue streams. Since the battle focus of any successful company is to grow the company and one of the best ways to do this is to increase the amounts of the existing revenue streams and to endeavor to always create new revenue streams, practically all of the AmeriVet strategies concern these two objectives.

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