Joaquin Duato

Executive Vice President and & Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals
Johnson & Johnson

Joaquin Duato is a globally experienced, values-driven healthcare business leader and currently the executive vice president and worldwide chairman, pharmaceuticals at Johnson & Johnson, the world’s premiere healthcare company and second largest innovative, branded pharmaceutical business. He is a respected industry leader and is the immediate past chairman of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). In recognition of his thought leadership, he was recently appointed to the board of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer.

Duato played an instrumental role in leading the dramatic turnaround of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals business. A 28-year veteran of the company, he was named company group chairman of the Americas in 2009. He then continued leading the global transformation upon his appointment as worldwide chairman in 2011. With a proven track record of creating innovative commercial solutions and processes to support the company’s cutting-edge medicines, he inspires employees to focus on transforming the lives of patients. The results are clear: with 16 new products launched since 2009 and up to 10 potential billion dollar medicines expected to be launched and/or filed before 2021, the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals sector is poised to extend its track record of seven years of continuous growth.

As a dual citizen of Spain and the U.S., Duato brings a unique international perspective to his work. With a career spanning three countries and two regions, he appreciates the value of diversity of experiences and perspectives. He brings this to bear externally as an active board member of the U.S. Spain Council and internally as the executive sponsor of the African American Leadership Council. His commitment to nurturing a culture of diversity was recognized in 2017 by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association when he was named 2017 Honorable Mentor. In 2015 he was named one of America’s Top 10 Hispanic Business Leaders by Hispanic Career World.

Duato also has a passion for learning, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and business, a Master Business Administration degree from ESADE, Barcelona and a master’s degree in international management from Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. He is a champion of improving access to both health literacy and education more broadly and recently completed his term as board member of the international charity Save the Children. He has also served on the international advisory board of ESADE. In addition, he mentors MBA candidates at universities around the world and has spoken on leadership in the pharmaceutical industry at academic institutions including MIT, Columbia Business School and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ultimately, Duato approaches every day with a clear sense of purpose and urgency, inspired by the words of Dr. Paul Janssen, “the patients are waiting.”