April 25th 2013 - Today, Johnson & Johnson held its 125th Annual Meeting of Shareholders in New Brunswick, NJ. Today’s shareholders meeting was Alex Gorsky’s first as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Here is a recap of the official business from today’s meeting, including preliminary voting results: 1) Election of Directors: All 12 Director nominees were elected to serve one-year terms on the Board of Directors with a range of support of 87 to 99 percent of the votes cast. Alex Gorsky (Chairman/CEO) received the support of 97 percent. A full list of our Board members, including their biographies, can be found in the Corporate Governance section of the investor.jnj.com website. 2) Advisory Vote to Approve Named Executive Officer Compensation: In this advisory vote, our shareholders approved the company’s executive compensation philosophy, policies and procedures and the compensation of the executive officers named in the 2013 Proxy Statement with the support of 94 percent of the votes cast. 3) Ratification of Appointment of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm: Our shareholders approved the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to serve as our independent auditors for 2013 with the support of 99 percent of the votes cast. 4) Shareholder Proposal – Executives to Retain Significant Stock: This proposal, made by Mr. Kenneth Steiner of Great Neck, NY, beneficial owner of 700 shares, received the support of 28 percent of the votes cast. 5) Shareholder Proposal on Political Contributions and Corporate Values: This proposal, made by Northstar Asset Management Inc. Funded Pension Plan of Boston, MA, beneficial owner of 168 shares, received the support of 6 percent of the votes cast. 6) Shareholder Proposal on Independent Board Chairman: This proposal, made for the second consecutive year by the AFSCME Employees Pension Plan of Washington, DC, beneficial owner of 20,084 shares, and co-sponsored by Hermes Fund Managers of London, England, beneficial owner of 113,022 shares, received the support of 25 percent of the votes cast. The details of all of these proposals can be found in our 2013 Proxy Statement. The final voting results will be disclosed in an upcoming SEC filing. Also announced at today’s meeting was the Board’s decision to increase the rate of the quarterly dividend to shareholders, from $0.61 per share to $0.66 per share, payable on June 11, 2013 to shareholders of record on May 28, 2013. This marks the 51st consecutive year of dividend increases by Johnson & Johnson. For more information about corporate governance at Johnson & Johnson, we encourage you to visit the Corporate Governance section of the investor.jnj.com website.
Douglas K. Chia is Assistant General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Johnson & Johnson. His responsibilities include providing legal counsel to the corporation on matters of corporate governance, securities regulation, public company disclosure, and Dodd-Frank Act and Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance. Recently, Doug was named as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance for 2012 by Treasury & Risk magazine.