Johnson & Johnson Chief Executive Alex Gorsky is stepping aside, handing over the reins to the world’s largest health-products company to a longtime lieutenant after nearly a decade at the helm.
Mr. Gorsky, who is 61 years old, will become J&J’s executive chairman effective Jan. 3. Joaquin Duato, who had led J&J’s pharmaceuticals business before becoming a Gorsky deputy, will become chief executive and join the company’s board of directors.
Mr. Gorsky has led the company to tremendous growth, making over J&J’s lineup to capitalize on technological advances, and navigated manufacturing issues that had plagued its signature consumer-health business, as well as thorny opioid and talcum-powder lawsuits. He leaves J&J still battling a pandemic that upended its factories, offices and labs while the company pursued a Covid-19 vaccine.
Health issues in his family in part prompted Mr. Gorsky to pursue the change, he said in an interview Thursday.
“In spite of the tremendous challenges we faced with Covid-19, I could not be more optimistic about the future of healthcare and the important role that J&J will play going forward,” Mr. Gorsky said.
