By Conrad Person, Director, Corporate Contributions

People often ask me why Johnson & Johnson is so deeply engaged with obstetric fistula. My answer is that the health and well-being of moms and babies is the essence of our company, and we would therefore care for the women who suffer personal tragedy in giving birth. I never fail to speak of Our Credo which charges us to “support good works and charities.” While this is all true, the whole story of our involvement with obstetric fistula is a great deal more personal than that. It started because one man earnestly wanted to do one good thing.

While Johnson & Johnson’s operating companies have supported those with obstetric fistula for two decades, it wasn’t until Axel Velden, a retired Johnson & Johnson executive who once had charge of the company’s export business, contacted me that our commitment at the corporate level began. I had never met Axel, but he was well known and universally respected, so when he called me one busy spring morning, I interrupted my task to listen.

Axel told me that he’d learned of a surplus of incontinence pads that a subsidiary was preparing to destroy. “Conrad, you can’t let the pads be destroyed.

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By: Alex Gorsky, Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson

During this month, thousands of students will accomplish an important academic milestone: the college graduation. I recently had the honor of delivering the keynote address to the 2013 graduating class at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton Executive MBA program. It was a homecoming for me because 17 years ago I was one of those graduates. In the years since, I’ve learned a few lessons I’d like to share with you as you begin to mold your own life plans.

Change will be the only consistency you encounter:

• Change has always been ubiquitous. The pace of change has hastened, though. It affects almost every country and every marketplace around the world. Your education has prepared you to not only survive these constantly shifting global environments but also thrive in them. As Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” Be responsive. Keep learning. Your academic education may be complete, for now, but your life education is just beginning.

Continually innovate your career:

• The word innovation is something you hear all the time today. To me, innovation isn’t just about coming up with the next miracle drug or relevant and different consumer product, it’s about using innovation in everything we do and every relationship we establish.

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Happy Mother’s Day to all of our readers! We are celebrating mothers, sisters, aunts, friends and kids everywhere with a post on our JNJParents blog from one of our own Johnson & Johnson moms.

Sometimes Moms need to hear they are doing okay, and Mother’s Day is the perfect time to tell them. From a simple pat on the back to kind words of support – these reassurances can make all the difference, especially for moms like Crystal Cortacans. Visit JNJParents to read Crystal’s post and learn how you can reassure a special woman in your life this Mother’s Day!

Click here to read Words Are Better Than Flowers.

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By Eric Compton, Worldwide President, Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc.

At Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (OCD), celebrating National Minority Health Month in April was an opportunity to shine a light on the health disparities affecting our country. While we are all at risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and in some instances HIV, these diseases can affect minorities at a much higher rate. As a company and as part of the broader healthcare community, we encourage everyone to take control of your own health and Know Your Numbers; so we can stand together by preventing, diagnosing and managing chronic disease.

We’re proud to say that our cause recently benefited from some star power. Jamar Rogers, known for his incredible performances on NBC’s The Voice, visited OCD to share how a blood test result helped him decide to live with purpose. We were so inspired by his talk that we asked him to submit a blog so that everyone could benefit from his message.

Here is Jamar’s story:

Ever since I was a little boy, I loved singing and dreamed of doing it professionally some day. However, by the time I was a teenager, those dreams were becoming out of reach.

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By Joanne Vanak, Senior Director of Scientific Advocacy at Janssen

I play many roles in my life and in my work. I am part of the scientific advocacy team at Janssen Biotech. I’m a former oncology nurse. I am a member of Johnson & Johnson’s Veteran’s Leadership Council. And, I’m also the daughter, wife and mother of men who have served in our country’s military. These are just a few of the reasons I’m so proud and honored to help my company launch a new campaign — Show Your Stripes for Prostate Cancer Awareness — to educate and support veterans and their families about prostate cancer.

There are lots of reasons this campaign is important. Did you know:

• Among the general population, approximately one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. It’s the second most common cancer next to skin cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths among American men.
• Approximately two-thirds of the cases of prostate cancer occur in men over the age of 65, or approaching it, and nearly two-thirds of male U.S. veterans are in this age group.
• And, prostate cancer not only impacts the men in our lives, but it can affect his family, friends, and loved ones.

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By Doug Chia, Assistant General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Johnson & Johnson

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.

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By Diego Miralles, Head of Janssen Healthcare Innovation and Johnson & Johnson Innovation, California

Janssen’s Diego Miralles and U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin at TEDMED 2013

Last week in Washington D.C., I had the privilege of attending my third annual TEDMED conference on behalf of Johnson & Johnson. TEDMED can best be described as a multi-disciplinary community of innovators who share a common determination to create a better future in health and medicine. The meeting brings together approximately 2,000 delegates in person, plus tens of thousands of additional participants who join globally via remote satellite locations, including events at more than a dozen different Johnson & Johnson facilities across the world.

This year the theme of TEDMED was “Unexpected Connections”, and that is exactly what happened. We spent three days connecting with people to think together, challenge our ideas, build new relationships, and create new beginnings. I was proud that Johnson & Johnson had a very significant presence at this meeting demonstrating our commitment to the TEDMED movement. Many of our most senior leaders actively engaged in collaborative and future-focused discussions with entrepreneurs and start-up companies and our scientists were on hand to showcase our latest technologies and contribute to the dialogue.

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By Fadra Nally, Corporate Communications, Johnson & Johnson

When I was in college, I remember ordering a t-shirt with some of my hard-earned minimum wage pay that proudly celebrated the 20 year anniversary of Earth Day. That was in 1990.

If you do a little math and consult some history, you’ll find that Earth Day originated in 1970. A time of flower power and hippie culture, as well as some of the worst environmental pollution of our time.

Using the momentum from the war protests at the time, a U.S. Senator founded what would become Earth Day, a day of demonstration and education all in the name of a healthy, sustainable environment.

Remarkably, that original Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.

Since that anniversary in 1990, when Earth Day saw a resurgence of interest and went global, the campaigns and initiatives to protect our environment for future generations have increased exponentially.

Our Sustainability Campaign

At Johnson & Johnson, we’re extremely proud to talk about our contribution with Earthwards®, a program launched in 2009 for developing and marketing greener products through lifecycle thinking.

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By Kelsey Ginck, Global Fellow, Corporate Communication, Johnson & Johnson

In honor of American Diabetes Alert Day, a one-day “wake up call” for learning your risk of diabetes, I asked my mom about her journey with diabetes — from her diagnosis and how it influenced her decision to become a diabetes educator at LifeScan Animas, to how her experiences have shaped where she is today, both personally and professionally.

Check out the full post over at JNJParents: http://jnj.me/14sSG4b

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By Kelsey Ginck, Corporate Communication Global Fellow at Johnson & Johnson, and Penn State Class of 2012.

One by one, numbers are lifted up until a final dollar sign is revealed and the THON 2013 total is greeted with screams and tears from thousands of student volunteers. The Penn State Dance Marathon (THON) shattered its previous record by raising $12,374,034.46 for kids with cancer. Johnson & Johnson was one of the leading sponsors of THON 2013, as we have been for many years, sharing in Penn State’s dream of conquering pediatric cancer. This year, I was there too, and I’m proud to be part of both organizations who are so committed to this cause.

Photo Credit: WWW.THON.ORG

THON is one of the most difficult things to explain to someone who’s never seen it with their own eyes. In its most basic form, the Penn State Dance Marathon is a yearlong fundraising effort, that culminates in February with a 46-hour no sitting, no sleeping dance marathon. All proceeds benefit the Four Diamonds Fund, an organization affiliated with the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, which provides families facing pediatric cancer with comfort and financial support. Students spend time with Four Diamonds Families, as they are affectionately called, throughout the year and invite them to the big celebration in February.

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