Joaquin Duato

Joaquin Duato
Birthplace	Spain
Nationality	American / Spanish
Occupation	Corporate executive
Title	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson
Employer	Johnson & Johnson
Known for	Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson

Joaquin Duato is a Spanish-born American business executive who serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson, one of the world's largest and most diversified healthcare companies. Duato assumed the role of CEO in January 2022, succeeding Alex Gorsky, and subsequently became Chairman of the Board. Over the course of a career spanning more than three decades at Johnson & Johnson, Duato rose through a series of leadership positions across multiple business segments and geographies, gaining deep experience in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer health products. Under his leadership, Johnson & Johnson has pursued a strategy of focusing on its pharmaceutical and medical technology businesses, including significant investments in advanced manufacturing and cell therapy. In November 2025, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy named Duato as the new Chair of the New Jersey CEO Council, a body dedicated to advancing the state's economic growth. In 2025, he was also recognized among the 100 Most Influential CEOs in Oncology.

Early Life

Joaquin Duato was born in Spain. He grew up in a European environment before eventually relocating to the United States in connection with his career at Johnson & Johnson. Details regarding his early family life and upbringing have not been extensively documented in public sources. Duato has been noted for his international background and multilingual capabilities, attributes that would later inform his leadership of a global healthcare corporation with operations in dozens of countries.

Career

Rise Through Johnson & Johnson

Duato spent more than three decades at Johnson & Johnson, building his career across the company's major business segments. He held a variety of leadership positions in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumer health sectors, working in multiple countries and gaining international operational experience. His trajectory within the company reflected a pattern of progressively expanding responsibilities, including roles that encompassed commercial operations, strategic planning, and business development across diverse global markets.

Prior to becoming CEO, Duato served as Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee at Johnson & Johnson, where he had oversight responsibilities for the company's pharmaceutical and consumer health businesses. In this capacity, he was closely involved in shaping the company's strategic direction, including decisions about research and development investment, portfolio management, and market expansion.

Appointment as CEO and Chairman

In January 2022, Duato succeeded Alex Gorsky as Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson, becoming only the ninth person to lead the company in its history, which stretches back to 1886. He subsequently assumed the additional title of Chairman of the Board of Directors, giving him dual leadership of both the company's management and its governing body.

Duato's appointment came at a pivotal time for Johnson & Johnson. The company was navigating the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which it had developed and distributed a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, while also facing ongoing litigation related to its talc-based consumer products and managing a large-scale corporate transformation.

Strategic Focus on Pharmaceuticals and MedTech

Under Duato's leadership, Johnson & Johnson has pursued a strategic transformation aimed at sharpening the company's focus on its pharmaceutical and medical technology (MedTech) businesses. A landmark decision in this transformation was the separation of the company's consumer health division, which was spun off as a separate publicly traded entity named Kenvue in 2023. This move allowed Johnson & Johnson to concentrate its resources and management attention on higher-growth, higher-margin segments of the healthcare industry.

The pharmaceutical portfolio under Duato's tenure has been anchored by several major products. The company's oncology and immunology franchises, including drugs such as Darzalex (daratumumab) for multiple myeloma, Tremfya (guselkumab) for immunological conditions, and Spravato (esketamine) for treatment-resistant depression, have been key growth drivers. The company has also faced the challenge of managing the loss of exclusivity for Stelara (ustekinumab), one of its historically top-selling immunology drugs, while working to offset that revenue decline with newer therapies.

In October 2025, Johnson & Johnson announced the divestiture of its orthopedics business, a further step in the company's portfolio reshaping. The move was described as keeping "all eyes on a thriving pharma portfolio," with leadership focused on the areas of the business demonstrating the strongest growth and innovation potential.

Investment in Advanced Manufacturing

A significant element of Duato's strategic vision has been a commitment to expanding Johnson & Johnson's manufacturing capabilities within the United States. In 2025, the company announced a more than $1 billion investment in a new next-generation cell therapy manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania. The facility was planned to create jobs and significantly expand the company's domestic manufacturing capacity for cell-based therapies, an area of medicine that involves modifying a patient's own cells to treat diseases such as certain blood cancers.

This investment was part of a broader commitment announced by Johnson & Johnson to spend approximately $55 billion on the construction of manufacturing facilities, reflecting the company's broader US manufacturing push. The New Jersey Business & Industry Association reported on the announcement, noting the scale of the planned Pennsylvania facility and its significance for the region's economy and the national advanced manufacturing landscape.

The cell therapy manufacturing investment aligned with Johnson & Johnson's growing presence in oncology, particularly in treatments for multiple myeloma and other hematological malignancies. The Pennsylvania facility was intended to support the production of CAR-T cell therapies and other advanced treatments that require specialized manufacturing infrastructure distinct from traditional pharmaceutical production.

Engagement with Government and Policy

Duato has been involved in discussions regarding healthcare policy at the federal level, including interactions with the Trump administration concerning drug pricing and manufacturing policy. In October 2025, Duato publicly stated that he expected Johnson & Johnson to find "common ground" with the Trump administration, suggesting that the company was "largely aligned with many of President Donald Trump's policy goals." His comments came in the context of ongoing industry-wide negotiations regarding a Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing framework, which would seek to align US drug prices more closely with those in other developed countries.

The company's substantial investments in domestic manufacturing were seen as complementary to the administration's emphasis on reshoring and expanding American manufacturing capacity, particularly in advanced technology and healthcare sectors.

Chair of New Jersey CEO Council

In November 2025, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced the appointment of Duato as the new Chair of the New Jersey CEO Council, succeeding Hans Vestberg of Verizon in the role. The New Jersey CEO Council is a group composed of chief executives of major companies operating in New Jersey, established to advise the governor's office and advance the state's economic growth and competitiveness.

The appointment reflected both Johnson & Johnson's historic ties to New Jersey — the company has been headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, since its founding — and Duato's personal prominence in the state's business community. Governor Murphy's announcement described the appointment as a continuation of the state's commitment to economic development, leveraging the expertise and influence of leading corporate executives.

Recognition

In 2025, Duato was recognized by Oncodaily as one of the 100 Most Influential CEOs in Oncology. The recognition cited his leadership of Johnson & Johnson, described as "one of the world's largest healthcare companies," and the company's significant presence across the oncology treatment landscape, including its portfolio of cancer therapies and its investments in cell therapy manufacturing.

The appointment as Chair of the New Jersey CEO Council by Governor Murphy in November 2025 was another form of recognition of Duato's standing in the business community and his role in shaping economic and healthcare policy at the state level.

Johnson & Johnson under Duato's leadership has maintained its position as one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world by revenue, and the company's strategic decisions during his tenure — including the Kenvue spinoff, the orthopedics divestiture, and the significant investments in cell therapy — have attracted substantial attention from industry analysts, the financial press, and healthcare policy observers.

Legacy

As of 2025, Duato's tenure as Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson has been defined by a series of consequential strategic decisions that have reshaped the company's corporate structure and business focus. The separation of the consumer health business into Kenvue marked one of the most significant corporate reorganizations in Johnson & Johnson's history, effectively transforming the company from a broadly diversified healthcare conglomerate into a more focused pharmaceutical and medical technology enterprise.

The commitment to investing over $55 billion in manufacturing, including the $1 billion Pennsylvania cell therapy facility, represents a substantial bet on the future of advanced therapeutics and domestic production capacity. Cell therapy, in particular, has been identified by the company as a key area of future growth, and the manufacturing infrastructure being developed during Duato's tenure is intended to support the production of these complex treatments at scale.

The divestiture of the orthopedics business in 2025 further sharpened the company's portfolio, signaling a strategic judgment that Johnson & Johnson's competitive advantages and growth opportunities were strongest in its pharmaceutical business, particularly in oncology, immunology, and neuroscience.

Duato's engagement with public policy, including his leadership of the New Jersey CEO Council and his public statements regarding alignment with federal policy goals on manufacturing and drug pricing, has positioned him as a prominent voice in the intersection of business leadership and healthcare policy in the United States.