Woody Johnson Biography
Woody Johnson born Robert Wood Johnson IV is an American businessman, philanthropist, and diplomat who is currently serving as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Woody is a great-grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I (co-founder of Johnson & Johnson). Alongside his brother, Christopher, Johnson is the owner of the New York Jets of the National Football League.
Woody Johnson Education
Johnson attended the Millbrook School and then graduated from the University of Arizona. He then worked menial summer jobs at Johnson & Johnson with the expectation of ascending to the top of the family business.
Woody Johnson Age
Johnson was born on April 12, 1947 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States. He is 72 years old as of 2019.
Woody Johnson Family
Johnson is the son of Betty (Wold) and Robert Wood Johnson III, president of Johnson & Johnson for four years. He grew up with four siblings, Keith Johnson, Billy Johnson, Elizabeth “Libet” Johnson, and Christopher Wold Johnson, in affluent areas of northern New Jersey.
Woody Johnson Wife
Johnson has been married two times. He is married to Suzanne Ircha Johnson, a former actress and equities managing director at Sandler O’Neill & Partners since 2009. The couple has two children.
He was previously married in 1977 to former fashion model Nancy Sale Johnson. The two had three children before divorcing in 2001. In early 2010, his daughter Casey Johnson died of diabetic ketoacidosis.
Woody Johnson Children
Johnson is a father of five children. He has three children with his ex-wife and two children with his current wife.
Woody Johnson Net Worth
Johnson has an estimated net worth of $4.2 billion, according to Bloomberg’s list of the world’s 500 richest people.
Woody Johnson House
Johnson has two homes; one in Bedminster Township, New Jersey, and the other one in Manhattan, New York City.
Woody Johnson Jets
On January 18, 2000, Woody purchased the Jets for $635 million, the third-highest price for a professional sports team and the highest for one in New York. Woody Johnson, who also owns courtside seats to the New York Knicks, outbid the $612 million offered by Charles Dolan, chairman of Cablevision, which owns Madison Square Garden, the Knicks, and the Rangers. Jets sold for more than $100 million above what some sports finance analysts had expected. Forbes now values the team at $ 2.85 billion.
After buying the Jets, Woody announced plans to move them to the proposed West Side Stadium in Manhattan. However, after the project’s defeat in 2005, he announced the Jets would move to a new Meadowlands Stadium as an equal partner with the Giants.
The new stadium was opened on April 10, 2010, with naming rights being acquired by MetLife. Woody served on the NFL Commissioner search committee in which a list of 185 candidates to succeed Paul Tagliabue was narrowed down to the final choice of Roger Goodell.
Woody Johnson Ambassador | Woody Johnson Trump
On January 19, 2017, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced that he planned to nominate Woody to become United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Trump nominated Johnson for the position on June 22, 2017. On June 26, 2017, the nomination was referred to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and a hearing was held on July 20, 2017.
On August 3, 2017, Johnson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Johnson was sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on August 21, 2017, in the Oval Office. He presented his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II on November 8, 2017, formally becoming Ambassador.
Woody Johnson Private ventures and legal problems
Wood Johnson is the chairman and chief executive of the Johnson Company, Inc., a private investment firm founded in 1978. In August 2006, he was asked to testify before the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations regarding his participation in a tax avoidance scheme.
A Senate report said that he along with others, was able to buy, for relatively small fees, roughly $2 billion in capital losses that they used to erase taxable gains they garnered from stock sales. The U.S. Treasury lost an estimated $300 million in revenue as a result.
In a statement, Woody said he had been advised by his lawyers in 2000 that the transaction “was consistent with the Tax Code.” After the Internal Revenue Service challenged that view in 2003, he in 2006 settled with the IRS and agreed to pay 100 percent of the tax due plus interest.
Woody was the committee president of the Pre-Commissioning Unit for the San Antonio-class ship USS New York.
Woody Johnson Philanthropy
Woody became involved in charitable organizations full-time in the 1980s. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Woody’s family has been affected by both lupus and juvenile diabetes, which motivated him to take a role in raising funds to prevent, treat, and cure autoimmune diseases.
Johnson has led efforts on Capitol Hill and at the National Institutes of Health to increase research funding for these diseases, and personally contributed to causes related to diabetes, after his daughter, Casey, was diagnosed with the disease. Johnson started a research foundation, the Alliance for Lupus Research, after his daughter Jaime was found to have lupus.
Woody Johnson Twitter
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