William C. Weldon

William C. Weldon (born November 26, 1948) is a former chairman of Johnson & Johnson. He was the eighth chairman in Johnson & Johnson's history of more than one hundred years.

Early life and education He was born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were a Broadway stagehand and a costume designer. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Quinnipiac University in 1971.

In 2009, he earned a total compensation of $22,830,834, which included a base salary of $1,802,500, a cash bonus of $12,831,146, stock awards of $2,762,532, option awards of $5,238,069, and other compensation of $196,587. In 2011, The New York Times named him on its list of "The Worst C.E.O.'s of 2011" for the increased number of Johnson & Johnson product recalls under his leadership. Additionally, as of 2013, his story was a case study at the Leadership & Corporate Accountability course at Harvard Business School.

In Weldon's first full year as the company's CEO, total revenues increased from $32.3 billion to $36.3 billion and net earnings from $5.7 billion to $6.6 billion. In 2011, his last full year as CEO, revenues were $44.7 billion and net earnings were $9.7 billion.

Weldon retired as chairman of Johnson & Johnson on December 28, 2012, and was reported to receive $143.5 million in retirement pay.

Board memberships He also sits on the JPMorgan Chase & Co. board of directors, the HeartFlow board of directors, the ExxonMobil board of directors, the Fairfax Financial board of directors, and the Quinnipiac University board of trustees.