Ideas for Tomorrow

Feature Speaker

Alex Gorsky

Executive Chairman, Johnson & Johnson

Date: Tuesday, October 4, 2022
Location: InterContinental Hotel
Time: 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. EDT

Biography

Alex Gorsky is Executive Chairman of Johnson & Johnson, and one of just seven leaders to have served in the dual role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1944.

Alex began his Johnson & Johnson career as a sales representative with Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1988. Over the next three decades, he advanced through positions of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing, and management, culminating in being named CEO and Chairman in 2012.

Under his leadership, Johnson & Johnson became an industry leader in areas including oncology, immunology, and digital surgery, and reimagined how one of the world’s most iconic companies could meet the healthcare needs of families around the globe. During Alex’s tenure, record levels of R&D investment, including $14.7 billion in 2021 alone, as well as hundreds of acquisitions and partnerships contributed to significant growth across its Medical Devices, Pharmaceutical, and Consumer Health sectors. As part of Johnson & Johnson’s commitment to serving more than a billion people each day, Alex also oversaw significant breakthroughs in public health, including the successful deployment of an Ebola vaccine in Africa and the development of the Janssen single-shot COVID-19 vaccine in just 13 months.

During Alex’s time as CEO, Johnson & Johnson was consistently recognized as one of the most innovative and best-managed companies in the world—featured on the list of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies in each year of his tenure, recognized as a “Most Innovative Company” by Fast Company, repeatedly named to Fortune’s “Change the World” list, and ranked as the #1 best-run healthcare company in The Wall Street Journal Management Top 250 since its inception in 2017. Alex continually promoted a more diverse and inclusive culture at Johnson & Johnson, serving as the driving force behind many of the company’s DE&I initiatives, including a $100 million pledge to fight health inequities faced by communities of color in the United States.

Outside Johnson & Johnson, Mr. Gorsky’s influence has shaped both the healthcare landscape and the greater business community through his work as a member of the Business Roundtable and the Business Council Executive Committees. Among other accolades, he has been honored with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award (2017), the Prix Galien Roy Vagelos Pro Bono Humanum Award (2021), the BENS Eisenhower Award for outstanding contributions to the United States (2021), the Franklin Institute Bower Award for Leadership (2022), and the Distinguished Graduate Award from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (2022). Alex currently sits on the Board of Directors of Apple, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and the Travis Manion Foundation, and serves on the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Board of Advisors.

After completing his undergraduate education at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Mr. Gorsky served six years in the Army, earning the rank of captain, the Ranger tab, and Airborne wings. He earned his MBA from Wharton in 1996. Alex has been married to his wife, Pat, for more than 30 years, and they are the parents to one son, Nick.

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Upcoming Speakers

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Ken Frazier
Executive Chairman and Former Chief Executive Officer, Merck and Co.
5:30 P.M. - 6:30 P.M. EDT

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Larry Culp
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, GE
5:30 P.M. - 6:30 P.M. EDT

Speaker Archives

Many thought leaders have participated in the Ideas for Tomorrow speaker series. Previous speakers are listed below along with links to their presentation videos where available.

Arvind Krishna
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, IBM

Doug McMillon
President & CEO Walmart Inc

Mellody Hobson
Co-CEO and President, Ariel Investments

Indra Nooyi
Former Chairman & CEO, PepsiCo

Tim Brown
Chair, IDEO

Valerie B. Jarrett
Former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama

Judy Faulkner
CEO and Founder, Epic

Mike DeWine
Ohio Governor

Brian Grazer
Academy Award-winning producer and Executive Chairman, Imagine Entertainment

David Feinberg, MD
Head of Google Health

Stephen A. Schwarzman
Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Blackstone

Kevin Love
NBA player for the Cleveland Cavaliers,
Founder of the Kevin Love Fund

Katie Couric
Journalist and Founder, Katie Couric Media

Dan Schulman
President and CEO, PayPal

David Rubenstein
Co-Founder & Co-Executive Chairman of The Carlyle Group

Larry J. Merlo
President and Chief Executive Officer, CVS Health

Franz Welser-Möst
Music Director
Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair
The Cleveland Orchestra

Steve Case & J.D. Vance
Steve Case: Chairman and CEO, Revolution LLC; Co-Founder, America Online; Chairman, The Case Foundation
J.D. Vance: Managing Partner, Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Revolution, LLC; Author, Hillbilly Elegy – Revolution, LLC

Keven Plank
CEO of Under Armour

Doris Kearns Goodwin
Best-selling author and "America's Historian-in-Chief"

Mindy Grossman
President and Chief Executive Officer, Director of Weight Watchers International, Inc.

General Stan McChrystal
Former Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan; Author of Best-Sellers Team of Teams and My Share of the Task; Co-Founder of the McChrystal Group

John Doerr
Chairman, Kleiner Perkins

Ginni Rometty
Chairman, President and CEO of IBM

Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil
Oncologist and Author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene: An Intimate History

Satya Nadella
Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft

Sheryl Sandberg
Chief Operating Officer at Facebook

Angela Duckworth
Founder and Scientific Director of the Character Lab

Frederick W. Smith
Founder and CEO of FedEx Corporation

Adam Silver
National Basketball Association Commissioner

Dan Gilbert
Majority Owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers

Fred McLeod
Play by Play Announcer for the Cleveland Cavaliers

David Gergen
CNN Senior Political Analyst; Harvard Kennedy School Professor and Director

David Agus
New York Times Bestselling Author; Physician and Professor of Medicine and Engineering, University of Southern California

Jim Free
Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's John H. Glenn Research Center

Jim Colins
Author and Lecturer

David Gregory
Author and Former Moderator of Meet the Press

Admiral Michael Rogers
Commander, U.S. Cyber Command; Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Cenpal Security Service

Marissa Mayer
Former President & CEO, Yahoo

Candice Bergen
Actress and Author

Jack and Suzy Welch
Executive Chairman of the Jack Welch Management Institute and Author

Lord Norman Foster
Founder of Foster + Partners, Architect

Thomas Friedman
Author & Journalist, The New York Times

Gentry Lee
Chief Engineer for the Solar System Exploration Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California

Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg
Former CEO of Google, Current Google's Executive Chairman; Google Advisor

Michael Govan
CEO and Walps Annenberg Director

Sebastian Thrun
Co-Founder and CEO, Udacity

Dr. Donald Berwick
Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Founding CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Mark Tercek
President and CEO, The Nature Conservancy

Arianna Huffington
Chair, President and Editor-in-Chief, Huffington Post Media Group

Karim Sadjadpour
Author and Middle East Expert

Daniel Yergin
Author and Authority on Energy, International Politics and Economics

Jack Dorsey
Creator, Co-Founder, and Executive Chairman of Twitter, Inc.; Co-Founder and CEO of Square, Inc.

Warren Buffet
Business Leader, Philanthropist

Vladimir Pozner
Russian Journalist and Author

John T. Chambers
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco

Kevin Johnson and Michelle Rhee
Mayor, City of Sacramento and CEO/Founder, StudentsFirst

Diane von Furstenberg
Fashion Designer

General Stanley A. McChrystal
Former commander of U.S. and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) Afghanistan; Former commander of the Premier Military Counter-Terrorism Force, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)

Dr. Ben S. Bernanke
Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve System

General James L. Jones, USMC (Ret.)
National Security Advisor

Dr. Atul Gawande
Practicing Surgeon, Accomplished Writer, Teacher and Speaker

Victor L.L. Chu
Chairman of the First Eastern Investment Group

Dean Kamen
Inventor and Physicist

Craig Mundie
Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft Corp.

Michael Dell
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Dell

H. Lee Scott, Jr.
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart)

Tom Kelley
General Manager of IDEO

Michael E. Porter
Glen Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School

His Excellency Yousef Al Otaiba
Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States of America and Mexico

Mike Milken
Philanthropist, Chairman of Milken Institute

Doris Kearns Goodwin
World-Renowned Historian

Stephen Kappes
Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency

Tom Brokaw
NBC News Special Correspondent

Glenn D. Lowry
Director of The Museum of Modern Art

Steven A. Burd
CEO of Safeway Inc.

Oprah Winfrey
Worldwide Media Leader, Philanthropist and Television Host

J. Craig Venter, PhD
Founder, Chairman and President of the J. Craig Venter Institute

John Glenn
Astronaut and Senator

William McDonough
World-Renowned Architect and Designer

Peter Lewis and Frank Gehry
Architects

Anne Mulcahy
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xerox Corp.

Antonin Scalia
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court