Katherine Johnson Cannata, dealer principal for Wyatt Johnson Automotive Group, is a Clarksville native who worked for Price Waterhouse in Atlanta, before returning to join her family’s car dealership. A graduate of Clarksville High School, she earned a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she played Division I tennis.
Cannata worked in public accounting as an auditor for Price Waterhouse in Atlanta for nine years. In that role, she was able to learn aspects of several different types of industries, from entertainment businesses to food companies.
Cannata returned to Clarksville to work with her father, the late Sid Johnson, in the growing Wyatt-Johnson dealerships. She steadily worked her way up, finally being named dealer principal of the company with more than 300 local employees. Wyatt-Johnson purchased the local Toyota dealership in 2012, adding that brand to the company’s list that includes Buick-GMC, Hyundai, Subaru, Mazda, Kia and Volkswagen. The Nashville Business Journal named Wyatt-Johnson one of Middle Tennessee’s top-earning businesses owned by a woman.