Chris Picariello has been promoted to president of Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC following the retirement of Tom Heyman.
JJDC, the corporate venturing unit owned by US-based medical group Johnson & Johnson (J&J), appointed Picariello to the role last month. He came from J&J’s North America consumer organisation where he had been vice-president of finance since July 2017.
Picariello had previously been J&J subsidiary Janssen Research & Development’s chief financial officer and global head of procurement, its government grants office and project management office.
JJDC was formed in 1973 and has been taking minority equity stakes in third-party entrepreneurs since, making it one of the oldest and most consistent investors in the corporate venture capital space.
Heyman, a GCV Powerlist Award winner in May, had replaced Brad Vale in 2015 and had successfully continued the group’s legacy.
JJDC committed more than $400m across more than 40 investments in 2018, though insiders said it was increasingly under “budgeting considerations and constraints” as its parent company battles up to $12bn in legal settlements across a range of its products, including talc, hip-plants, blood thinners and opioids.
Heyman’s retirement follows that of Robert Urban, head of J&J Innovation, at the end of 2018, and a number of personnel changes at JJDC. Renee Ryan and Marianne De Backer both left in the past year leaving seven vice-presidents: Jeanne Bolger, Kadir Kadhiresan, Tamir Meiri, Vijay Murphy, Marian Nakada, Asish Xavier and Zeev Zehavi.
J&J has continued to invest in its innovation centres and through Janssen Business Development.
Stacey Feld was promoted to head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, West North America, Australia and New Zealand last month. The unit is still located at the innovation centre in South San Francisco, California, with Michal Preminger covering East North America from Boston.
Photo of Chris Picariello from Johnson & Johnson.
