J&J CEO Weldon Bought $8.45M Waterfront Lot as He Planned 8,100 Layoffs
As Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) CEO William Weldon planned up to 8,100 layoffs at his company (announced today), he was also buying an $8.45 million, palm-fringed waterfront lot in North Palm Beach, Fla., from former General Electric CEO Jack Welch. The sale was noted by the Palm Beach Daily News on Oct. 27:
John F. “Jack” Welch Jr., former chairman and CEO of General Electric, sold two adjacent vacant waterfront lots in North Palm Beach for $8.45 million to William C. Weldon, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, and his wife, Barbara D. Weldon of New Hope, Pa., according to a warranty deed filed Monday.
The purchased lots are lovely. Here’s a picture of them:
The lots are in a development called “Lost Tree Village.” Here’s the realtor’s description:
Lost Tree Village consists of homes with ocean, intracoastal, golf course, and lake views with a boundary of MacArthur State Park to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Lake Worth to the west and Seminole Landing to the north.
Homes located on Lake Worth include the opportunity for deep-water private boat docks.
* 24-hour manned private security, laser bar code access
* Private beach and Beach Club
* First rate health club facility
The unfortunate coincidence betweem Weldon treating himself to a fancy beachfront resort and his ruining the lives of 8,000 of his colleagues has not gone unnoticed at J&J. There’s already a thread fulminating on CafePharma. Sample quote:
CEOs should forfeit all bonuses if company goals are not met and that includes lack of pipeline and restructures. You should not be able to take a dime when others are losing thier livelihood because of the poor decisions you made or were made on your clock.
Here’s a snapshot of the top five J&J execs’ compensation:
- Name, 2008 pay, 2007 pay
- CEO William Weldon, 29.4 million, $30.6 million
- CFO Dominic Caruso, $3.9 million, $2.9 million
- WW chairman/pharma Christine Poon, $10 .4 million, $10.1 million
- General counsel Russell Deyo, $8 million, $9.1 million
- Colleen Goggins, $8.5 million, $7.9 million
Numbers are rounded, includes stock and options whose value changes over time.
Image via K2 Realty.
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Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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