About Forum Fellow William Weldon
William C. Weldon is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson. He assumed his current responsibilities in April 2002. Previously Mr. Weldon served as Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals Group, and as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. He was elected to the Board in February 2001. Mr. Weldon joined Johnson & Johnson in 1971 in the sales and marketing department of its McNeil Pharmaceutical subsidiary. In 1982 he was named manager, ICOM Regional Development Center in Southeast Asia.
Mr. Weldon was appointed executive vice president and managing director of Korea McNeil, Ltd., in 1984 and managing director of Ortho-Cilag Pharmaceutical, Ltd., in the U.K. in 1986. In 1989, he was named vice president of sales and marketing at Janssen Pharmaceutica in the U.S., and in 1992 he was appointed president of Ethicon Endo-Surgery. In 1995 Mr. Weldon was named a company group chairman of Johnson & Johnson and Worldwide Franchise Chairman of Ethicon Endo-Surgery, the Johnson & Johnson affiliate that develops new procedures for minimally-invasive surgery and designs related products.
In 1998 Mr. Weldon was promoted to the Executive Committee and named Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals Group. Among his outside activities, Mr. Weldon is a member of the Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase & Co. He serves on the Executive Committee of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, and is a member of The Business Council, a member of The Business Roundtable and a member of the Healthcare Leadership Council.
Mr. Weldon also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for Quinnipiac University. He previously served as Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Mr. Weldon was born in Brooklyn, NY, and is a graduate of Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He and his wife have two children and one grandson.