Best-known as the half-brother of Boris Johnson, Max Johnson is an expert on finance and investment in China. Fluent in five languages, he has spent over 15 years living in Asia and Hong Kong, where he worked for Goldman-Sachs, before setting up his own firm, MJ Capital. This varied career has given Max unprecedented insight into how Chinese business and culture functions, and how best to strengthen the fragile relationship between East and West.... Read more
Max Johnson is a British entrepreneur and investor, and the half-brother of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In 2009 he was the first Briton to gain an MBA from Tsinghua University, and has followed this up with an impressive career in finance on the Asian continent. In 2018 he set up investment firm MJ Capital, and also holds advisory roles in other investment firms. Max has unparalleled knowledge of how China thinks and works. “My mission in business is to improve relations between China and the UK,” he says.
After completing his MBA, Max Johnson spent five years working in business development for a British metals trader, before transitioning to Goldman-Sachs where he worked across a range of sectors. This background in commodities trading, global finance, private advisory and international dealmaking gives Max a unique perspective on ways to deepen and strengthen the East-West bridge.
Max is a founder member of the China Britain Business Council and has served as vice-chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China. In 2024 he was elected member of the Hong Kong Securities and Investment Institute. His advisory roles include a contract with Meridian Universal and ABG Advisory, a New York-based offshoot of Tony Blair Associates. In 2025 Max was appointed to the supervisory board of Anorbank, Uzbekistan first digital-only bank.
As well as holding a certificate in management from MIT Sloan School of Business, Max is fluent in five languages, including Russian, Mandarin, Polish and French. After Eton, he gained a Modern Languages BA in Russian with Polish at Christ Church College, University of Oxford, where he was the UK winner of the 2007 Russian Language Essay Competition. A documentary, In The Footsteps of Marco Polo, in which Max travelled alongside his father Stanley Johnson, retracing the 13th-century explorer’s footsteps across Asia.
Max Johnson was the first British man to run the Pyongyang Marathon in North Korea, and holds a black belt in Taekwondo.