A Quick Look at Tom Manion and J&J

When Republican Tom Manion announced his candidacy for Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district last January the description of his work experience was uniform. Here are five examples:

Pennsylvania Avenue (Morning Call blog)
"Manion plans D.C. trip before making final decision" by Josh Drobnyk 12/31/2007

Manion is a 53-year-old vice president at pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson who lives in Doylestown Township.

Inquirer
“Father of fallen Marine to seek office,” Larry King 1/16/08

Manion, a vice president for information technology at Johnson & Johnson, is a Philadelphia native, one of 10 children born to a salesman and a homemaker.

Buck County Courier Times
“Manion announces congressional run,” by Brian Scheid 1/15/08

Manion, a vice president of information technology with Johnson and Johnson, ended his 30-year military career when he retired as a colonel in the Marine Reserves last month.

The Bulletin
“Manion announces his plans to run,” by Bradley Vasoli 1/16/08

Tom Manion, a Doylestown resident and a vice president of information technology at the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company, announced yesterday he will run against U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pennsylvania) this year.

Insider
“DC Bound?” January 2008

But Manion has a political Achilles Heel: he is a corporate vice president at the pharmaceutical and products company, Johnson & Johnson, in charge of information systems, and is running hard against expanded government health care and prescription coverage.

All of these print sources were probably working from an Ur document; my guess would be a press release from the campaign.

Then the description changed. Manion’s website says he was a “business executive.” I could have sworn it used to say vice president but I cannot locate a cached copy of the site and it appears to be too recent to appear in the Wayback Machine and so cannot prove it.

Jewish Exponent
“Races heat up for local hopefuls seeking seats in Washington” by Bryan Schwartzman, 2/14/08

Tom Manion, a retired U.S. Marine Col. and Johnson & Johnson executive, is hoping to defeat U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy come November.

Bulletin
“Manion now unopposed in primary bid to unseat Murphy,” Bradley Vasoli, 2/29/08

Retired U.S. Marine colonel and current Johnson & Johnson executive Tom Manion will run unopposed in his Republican bid against U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D) as his primary rival dropped out.

The Hill
“GOP young guns aim to win 22 house seats” Susan Crabtree 4/28/08

Tom Manion, an executive at Johnson & Johnson, served 20 years in the Marine Corps, retiring as a colonel.

Reuters
“Don’t waste your vote candidate is first on ballot in Pennsylvania”

Facing daunting prospects Fitzpatrick opted out of this year's race and Tom Manion, a Johnson & Johnson middle manager executive, was hand-picked by GOP party bosses to
face Murphy.

City Paper
“In Murphy’s craw,” by Mary Patel, 3/13/08

Kevin Kelly, former head of the Young Republicans and a supporter of Manion, said that Manion simply used the event to thank supporters and that he would announce his platform very soon.

"Col. Manion left a half-a-million-dollar-a-year job at Johnson & Johnson to run for office to make a change," added Kelly.

Wow, that's some salary for middle management! It sounds like a vice presidential salary. The Bucks County Courier Times brief description on April 16, before the primary, listed his occupation as vice president at Johnson & Johnson.

However, I’ve gone through the 1997-2007 Johnson & Johnson annual reports and in the list of corporate officers the office of Vice President / Chief Information Officer is held by someone else. In each annual report 7 or more vice presidents are listed and none, in any year, are named Manion. It is possible that there are other vice presidents not in the annual report lists. Johnson & Johnson has several wholly owned subsidiary companies, some with Johnson & Johnson in the company name; it is possible that Mr. Manion was a vice president with one of those companies.

In “No more I.T. tears,” by Rob Garretson CIOInsight 2/2007 we read:

In 1996, the 120-year-old company had embarked on a wrenching shift to consolidate IT infrastructure under a single centralized division, defying its heritage as a confederation of fiercely independent operating companies. The purpose was to corral uncounted millions in IT spending.

This is supported by a July 1997 article, “Johnson & Johnson” in CFO magazine:

Johnson & Johnson is a highly decentralized organization; its 172 operating units create their own IT budgets and develop business cases for IT investments. This year, for the first time, the units are structuring their budgets according to the four areas of the value chain.

The “Management by Maxim” chapter in Leveraging the New Infrastructure by Peter Weill and Marianne Broadbent (Harvard Business School Press, 1998) also gives some history and information on IT at J&J but nothing that cleared up my confusion. Perhaps there will be some clarification later in the campaign.