Soren Johnson, who is perhaps best known for being the lead designer on Civilization IV and more recently worked at Maxis on Spore. Following a spell with Zynga it would seem Johnson is back in the strategy fold (even if it's not said outright).
His new studio is backed by Stardock, with Brad Wardell acting as president and it's based in Baltimore. Their first project, codenamed Mars, will use Oxide Games' new Nitrous Engine (that's also backed by Stardock and will be used for the new Galactic Civilizations III).
"Mohawk puts gameplay first," said Soren Johnson. "Our goal is to make games that will be played for years, based on elegant, replayable systems that are not limited by finite content creation. Our development process emphasizes rapid iteration above all else, requiring our games to be playable as soon as possible so that we have time to find the fun."