Bayer Exec Peterson to Be J&J Group Worldwide Chairman

Johnson & Johnson said Sandra Peterson, currently a Bayer executive, will take on the new role of group worldwide chairman, overseeing a consent decree at the company's troubled manufacturing plants that produce over-the-counter drugs.

Beginning Dec. 1, Peterson will oversee information technology and the global supply chain, as well as J&J's vast consumer business, which makes products including Tylenol, baby shampoo and Band-Aids, the company said on Thursday.

Peterson, 52, will also become a member of the J&J executive committee, the company said.

J&J's McNeil Consumer Healthcare has been operating under a consent decree after three of its manufacturing plants failed to curb quality lapses that had sparked a flood of recalls for its nonprescription medicines, such as Tylenol painkiller.

Over the past couple of years, faulty manufacturing has prompted J&J's McNeil unit to recall millions of bottles and packages of Tylenol, Motrin, Rolaids, Benadryl and other products. Some of these recalls affected the company's distribution worldwide.

Peterson is chairman and chief executive officer of Bayer CropScience, a Europe-based affiliate of Bayer, a position she has held since 2010. Before that, she was president and CEO of Bayer Medical Care and president of Bayer HealthCare's Diabetes Care Division.

Prior to joining Bayer in 2005, Peterson spent 5 years in leadership roles at Medco Health Solutions.

Earlier this year, J&J named Alex Gorsky as chief executive, replacing William Weldon, who retired. Gorsky had been vice chairman of J&J's Medical Device and Diagnostics Group, and beat out Sherilyn McCoy, who had been vice chairman of the J&J's Pharmaceutical, Consumer, Corporate Office of Science & Technology, and Information Technology divisions.

Shortly after Gorsky's appointment, McCoy resigned after a 30-year career with J&J, to become CEO of Avon Products .