Meet Chairman Wu.
On August 27, 2013, Johnson & Johnson announced that Jesse Wu, the company’s worldwide chairman of consumer business, will fill the newly created role of chairman of J&J China.
Wu will report to J&J’s Chairman and CEO Alex Gorsky. The business heads of J&J’s three Chinese operations will report to Wu.
Pendergrass Heads Global Consumer Business
The company also announced that Lynn Pendergrass, a Hewlett-Packard senior VP overseeing the printing and personal systems businesses for the Americas, will join J&J, taking over Wu’s job as head of the global consumer business.
The reorganization comes in the midst of a major Chinese reform effort to clean up business practices and enforce new anti-trust and corruption laws. The company was recently ordered by a Chinese court to pay $85, 000 to a distributor who had sued the company for setting a minimum price the distributor could charge for surgical sutures. The company was found guilty of “vertical monopoly.”
Wu Highlights
Wu graduated with a major in Economics from National Chengchi University, Taiwan and received his MBA from Duke University.
He started with J&J in 1989. His career highlights, in addition to his current worldwide chairman role, include: company group chairman, global markets organization; international vice president, Asia-Pacific; president, Greater China; and, finance director of both China and Taiwan.
He is the recipient of the Magnolia Award from the Shanghai municipal government, given in recognition of his contributions to Shanghai’s development. He also sits on the board of directors of the Consumer Goods Forum, a global industry network of more than 650 retailers and manufacturers.
“Don’t Touch the Juice”
In a 2012 McKinsey & Company interview, Wu talked about the company’s products in emerging markets. Wu said it was important to always keep in mind in emerging markets that consumers are looking for good value, but they don’t want cheap. “As we’ve expanded our lines to reach more consumers in the middle of the pyramid, we’ve been careful to keep product quality as high as in our higher-end brands. I always tell our new-product development teams ‘Don’t touch the juice.’”
Maybe we’ve heard the first quotation from Chairman Wu. We look forward to others.
