What is Woody Johnson's net worth?
Woody Johnson is an American businessman and philanthropist who has a net worth of $3.5 billion. An heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, Woody Johnson earned his net worth through his position as the Chief Executive and Chairman of the Johnson Company Inc. Johnson was also committee President for the Pre-Commissioning Unit for the USS New York, and he served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from November 2017 to January 2021. Woody purchased the NFL's New York Jets in 2000 for $635 million. This came as the highest price for a team in New York, and the third-highest for any professional sports team. Today the Jets are worth $5.4 billion. Johnson served on a committee to help choose now-NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Woody was accused of participating in a sham tax shelter and settled with the IRS in 2006. He has given over $1 million to Republican candidates and committees. Johnson helped John McCain raise more than $7 million for his presidential campaign in one night and has provided funding for the Republican National Convention.
Early Life
Woody Johnson was born Robert Wood Johnson IV on April 12, 1947, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He is the son of Robert Wood Johnson III and Betty Wold. Woody's paternal great-grandfather, Robert Wood Johnson I, founded Johnson & Johnson. Woody grew up with three brothers, Keith, Billy, and Christopher, and a sister named Elizabeth (better known as "Libet"). Johnson lost two of his brothers just weeks apart in 1975; Billy died in a Los Angeles motorcycle accident, and Keith passed away after a cocaine overdose in Florida. Libet died of Alzheimer's in 2017. Christopher co-owns the Jets with Woody, and he was the team's CEO and chairman while Woody was serving as Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Johnson studied at the Millbrook School in Stanford, New York, then he spent summers working at Johnson & Johnson while he attended the University of Arizona.
Career
Woody was the Chief Executive and Chairman of the private investment firm The Johnson Company, Inc. In 2006, he testified before the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in relation to a tax avoidance scheme in which he and a few others allegedly purchased "roughly $2 billion in capital losses that they used to erase taxable gains they garnered from stock sales," which resulted in the U.S. Treasury losing an estimated $300 million in revenue. Woody stated that his lawyers advised him that this "was consistent with the Tax Code," but in 2006, he agreed to pay 100% of the taxes he owed to the IRS, plus interest. In early 2000, Johnson paid $635 million for the New York Jets, and he was later a member of the NFL search committee that chose a successor to NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. After Woody's stint as Ambassador to the United Kingdom ended, Johnson returned to his position as the Jets' chairman, and his brother Christopher became the team's vice-chairman. Woody became a supporter of Chelsea F.C. during his time in the U.K., and in March 2022, he put in a £2 billion bid to buy the team from billionaire Roman Abramovich, who had been sanctioned after Russia invaded Ukraine. Later that month, "The Athletic" reported that Johnson was "out of the race to buy Chelsea."
In June 2017, then-President Donald Trump nominated Woody for the position of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and the Senate confirmed Johnson in August. In 2018, he oversaw the United States Embassy in London's relocation from Grosvenor Square to Nine Elms. During his tenure, Britain withdrew from the European Union, and Woody advocated for a post-Brexit bilateral U.K.-U.S. trade deal. Johnson and Queen Elizabeth II had a private dinner in March 2019, two days after Theresa May's Brexit plan was rejected by British Parliament. In a June 2019 interview with "The Andrew Marr Show," Woody stated, "I think the entire economy, in a trade deal, all things that are traded would be on the table." When he was asked if healthcare would be included in that, Johnson replied, "I would think so." Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said of Woody's statements, "The ambassador's comments are terrifying and show that a real consequence of a no-deal Brexit, followed by a trade deal with Trump, will be our NHS up for sale. This absolutely should not be on the table." During his time as Ambassador, Johnson advocated for the deregulation of food that was exported to the U.K. from the U.S., earning criticism from many British agriculture standard boards.
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In 2020, Woody was investigated for allegedly making racist and sexist comments to embassy staff members. The State Department inspector general later released a report stating that Johnson "sometimes made inappropriate or insensitive comments on topics generally considered Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)-sensitive, such as religion, sex, or color." In January 2021, the State Department's Office of Civil Rights found that the allegations of racist or sexist comments were "unsubstantiated." In February 2018, Woody reportedly tried to get the British Open golf tournament moved to Scotland's Turnberry Golf Resort, which is owned by Trump. "The New York Times" reported that Trump had asked Johnson to seek the influence of the British government in getting the event moved to his resort. In a 2020 interview with Rachel Maddow, Lewis Lukens, who formerly served as Deputy Chief of Mission at London's U.S. Embassy, stated, "The ambassador came back from a meeting at the White House, the very next morning he came and talked to me, said the President wants me to do this. Who should I talk to, how should I go about doing it? I said, 'You can't, you shouldn't do it. This is unethical, probably illegal.' A couple weeks later, he asked again, I gave him the same answer. And then he went and had a meeting with a British minister responsible for Scotland and made the request, or made the suggestion at least."
Personal Life
Woody married Nancy Sale, a former model, in 1977, and they welcomed three children before they divorced in 2001. Sadly, their daughter Casey died at the age of 30 from diabetic ketoacidosis in 2010. Their daughter Jamie was diagnosed with lupus, which inspired Johnson to launch the Alliance for Lupus Research in 1999.
Woody married Suzanne Ircha on June 4, 2009, and they have two children together. Suzanne is a former actress who has worked at Sandler O'Neill & Partners as an equities managing director. Her father immigrated to the U.S. from Ternopil, Ukraine, after the end of World War II, and her maternal grandparents were Ukrainian immigrants.
In April 2022, the Jets announced that they were donating $1 million to help the Ukrainian people after the country was invaded by Russia, splitting the donation between several charities. Woody and Suzanne have visited Ukrainian refugees in Poland, and in August 2022, Johnson wrote an article for "The Telegraph" in which he urged the U.K. and the U.S. to help the Ukrainian people. Woody was previously the chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and he co-wrote the book "Managing Your Child's Diabetes" with Nancy and Casey. Johnson served as a chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, and in 2002, he lobbied Congress to approve a $750 million, five-year package to fund diabetes research.
Real Estate
In March 2015 Woody sold a NYC condo for $77.5 million.
In April 2020, Johnson paid $32.2 million for a home in Palm Beach, Florida, through a Delaware-based limited liability company. The home was developed on speculation and had never been lived in. Woody has also owned homes in Bedminster Township, New Jersey, and Manhattan.
