Doug McMillon and Joaquin Duato: The Surprising Truth Behind Their Powerful Leadership Connection

doug mcmillon and joaquin duato are prominent business leaders associated with Walmart and Johnson & Johnson, respectively. Doug McMillon is the former CEO of Walmart, while Joaquin Duato is the current Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson. Although they lead different industries, retail and healthcare, they have no known joint company or direct business partnership. They appear together in online searches because they belong to the same circle of Fortune-level executives and both made significant headlines over the past year. McMillon retired as Walmart CEO on January 31, 2026, and John Furner took over on February 1. Duato was elected to PepsiCo’s board, effective December 1, 2026.

That is the short version. The longer version is more interesting, because their careers show two very different ways to run a giant company. One leader grew up in the stockroom and left at the top on a planned schedule. The other is still mid-transformation, reshaping a 140-year-old company while the world watches.

Who Is Doug McMillon?

Carl Douglas McMillon was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on October 17, 1966. He took his first Walmart job as a teenage summer associate. He stayed with the company for the rest of his career.

His climb is a useful case study in how companies build leaders:

• Walmart promoted him to president and CEO of Sam’s Club on August 4, 2005, where he pushed marketing to small business customers.
• In February 2009 he moved to lead Walmart International, a division of more than 3,300 stores in 14 countries at the time.
• He joined the board in November 2013 and became CEO in 2014.

Running Sam’s Club and then the international business gave McMillon something many CEOs lack. He had managed both a membership model and a multi-country operation before he ever managed the whole company. That breadth helps explain why he was comfortable making big changes to how Walmart worked.

What McMillon Actually Changed at Walmart

Walmart’s annual revenue grew from nearly $486 billion when he became CEO to $681 billion in its latest fiscal year, according to CBS News. CNN’s retirement coverage noted that supply-chain strength and grocery dominance let Walmart offer low prices on necessities to shoppers across income levels. CNN also reported that the Walmart+ subscription grew into a kind of early rival to Amazon Prime, and that the stock rose about 300% during his tenure.

He also made expensive mistakes, which is what makes his record credible rather than a victory lap. CNN pointed to the unsuccessful $3 billion Jet.com acquisition, which was eventually folded into Walmart.com, and said his push into upscale clothing, including Bonobos, did not pan out.

McMillon’s most underrated skill was not picking winners. It was how quickly he stopped losing bets. Walmart absorbed a $3 billion Jet.com experiment and still came out with a stronger e-commerce engine. The lesson for any business: experiment loudly, but close failed experiments quietly and quickly.

The Retirement, Explained

The exit was orderly. McMillon, then 59, stayed on the board until June and agreed to serve as an adviser to Furner through fiscal year 2027, in line with earlier CEO transitions. An analyst quoted by CBS called the retirement “somewhat surprising,” given how highly investors regarded him.

His successor is also a lifer. John Furner, 51, started as an hourly associate in 1993 and previously ran Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club. The board chose continuity over a shock hire, and that is a signal worth noticing.

Who Is Joaquin Duato?

Joaquín Duato Boix is a Spanish-American executive and a very different kind of leader. He is Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, was named CEO in January 2022 and Chairman in January 2023, and is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Spain. He holds an MBA from ESADE in Barcelona and a Master of International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix.

Before the top job, he was Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee, overseeing pharmaceuticals and consumer health, along with technology and the global supply chain. He joined J&J in 2005. He is the company’s eighth CEO since it went public in 1944.

A fun fact most profiles skip: Duato is the brother of Spanish actress Ana Duato and a relative of the famed dancer and choreographer Nacho Duato. A pharmaceutical boss from a family with well-known performers is not a pairing you expect.

What Duato Is Doing at J&J Right Now

Duato’s tenure is defined by reshaping, not just running. Three moves stand out:

1. Separating the consumer business. J&J spun off its consumer health business as Kenvue in 2023.

2. Separating Orthopaedics. In October 2025 the company announced its intention to separate Orthopaedics, targeting completion within 18 to 24 months. Reuters has reported that J&J is also exploring a potential sale of the unit in a deal that could exceed $20 billion.

3. Betting big on the United States. Duato has pointed to J&J’s commitment to invest $55 billion in the U.S. over four years, a pledge that sits in the middle of drug-pricing and tariff negotiations.

The numbers look strong. In July, J&J reported second-quarter 2026 sales of about $25.3 billion, raised its guidance, and said it is on track for more than $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time in its 140-year history. On the product side, Tremfya sales passed $5 billion for the first time, with management expressing confidence in more than $10 billion at peak.

It is not all smooth. J&J’s 2025 results included a $7 billion talc reserve reversal, and Duato has said the company will keep defending against what management calls meritless claims. Litigation overhang is a real part of the story, and readers should treat any glowing profile that ignores it with suspicion.

A company crossing $100 billion in revenue while shedding two large businesses is unusual. Most CEOs grow by adding. Duato is growing by subtracting, and betting that a more focused J&J is worth more than a sprawling one.

Doug McMillon and Joaquin Duato: Side-by-Side Comparison

Is There a Real Connection Between Them?

This is the question behind the keyword, and I want to answer it honestly rather than invent a story.

I found no joint venture, shared project, or public partnership between the two men. What I did find is a shared membership. OneTen is a coalition launched in 2020 with 37 founding CEOs and companies, aiming to upskill, hire and promote one million Black Americans without four-year degrees into family-sustaining jobs over ten years. Its leadership page has listed both Doug McMillon and Joaquin Duato among its board and advisory names, though that page is an older snapshot and some titles on it are outdated.

Business-contact databases also list them as peers, but that only means they move in the same executive circles. Shared membership in the same coalition is the most defensible link I can document. Be wary of any article that claims a deeper tie without naming a source.

The Pay Question People Keep Asking

Executive pay draws a lot of searches. For Duato, reports note he earned about $28.4 million in 2023, the highest among major U.S. pharmaceutical CEOs that year and a 117% jump from 2022. I am deliberately not quoting a net-worth figure for either man. Those numbers circulate widely online, rarely cite filings, and change with the stock price. If you need accurate compensation data, check each company’s proxy statement filed with the SEC.

What Each Leader Teaches Us

We will go beyond summarizing, since the point of an article like this is a view we can use.

McMillon’s lesson: continuity is a strategy. Walmart’s board chose an insider, kept the outgoing CEO close for a year-plus, and announced the plan months ahead. Compare that with abrupt CEO exits at other major firms. The boring approach protects billions in market value. Succession is the most important decision a board makes, and McMillon’s handoff is a model for it.

Duato’s lesson: focus beats size. Many corporate leaders treat shrinking as failure. Duato is treating it as design. If the Orthopaedics separation goes well, J&J will be a tighter company built around medicines and higher-growth devices. If it goes badly, critics will say he sold off stable earnings at the wrong time. Both outcomes are plausible, and the next 12 months will tell us more than any bio can.

Where I’d push back on both: Neither company has fully escaped criticism. Walmart’s low-price model draws recurring debate about wages and local retail competition. J&J’s talc litigation and drug-pricing fights are ongoing. Respecting a leader’s record doesn’t require ignoring the criticism that comes with it.

The Three Most Valuable Flashpoints If These Two CEOs Sat Down Together

If you were producing a joint podcast with these two CEOs, the following three topics would elevate the conversation beyond “two executives chatting”:

Round One: How Do You Exit with Grace?
McMillon’s retirement was a carefully designed “relay.” In an HBR interview, he said: “When you see someone who can run faster and run better, the right thing to do is hand them the baton, step aside, and cheer for them.” That logic deserves probing: How did he judge that “the time had come”? How far in advance did he start preparing a successor? For Duato, the question is equally sharp he is 62, leading the largest restructuring in J&J’s history, and one has to ask: has J&J’s board already begun thinking about his succession plan?

Round Two: Is AI a “Force Multiplier” or a “Cost Killer”?
Duato made it clear in a David Rubenstein interview that AI is a “force multiplier that has to be embraced.” McMillon, during his tenure, had already embedded AI into Walmart’s operations two agentic AI tools, Sparky and Wally, are already running. A podcast could put the two in direct debate: AI’s “cost reduction” in retail versus AI’s “R&D acceleration” in pharma which application better defines the next decade? McMillon’s answer might lean more toward operational efficiency; Duato’s might lean more toward scientific breakthroughs.

Round Three: OneTen Is Their Real Common Ground But Does It Work?
Both men appear on OneTen’s leadership roster. OneTen’s CEO, Debbie Dyson, revealed in an HBS podcast that the coalition has achieved “130,000+ hires and promotions.” But a podcast should press harder questions: During McMillon’s tenure at Walmart, did the wage and promotion data for Walmart’s frontline workers change materially? Has Duato’s “skills-first” hiring practice at J&J produced internal data he can actually show? Co-signing an initiative is easy; delivering verifiable results is the real test.

What to Watch Next

• December 1, 2026: Duato joins the PepsiCo board and Audit Committee. A sitting CEO taking an outside board seat suggests the company sees him as a risk-oversight voice, not just a name.
• Mid-2027: The expected timeline for J&J’s Orthopaedics separation.
• J&J’s $100 billion milestone: Management says it is on track for 2026. Watch the Q3 results for confirmation.
• Walmart under Furner: The early test is whether he preserves McMillon’s momentum in e-commerce and technology while putting his own stamp on the company.
• Duato’s views on AI: In a recent David Rubenstein interview, Duato described artificial intelligence as a force multiplier that has to be embraced. Expect more detail on how that plays out in drug discovery and surgery.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Doug McMillon and Joaquin Duato related or business partners?
No. They lead or led unrelated companies. The documented overlap is membership in the same CEO coalition, OneTen.

Is Doug McMillon still CEO of Walmart?
No. He retired on January 31, 2026, and John Furner became CEO on February 1.

What does Joaquin Duato do now?
He is Chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, and will join PepsiCo’s board on December 1, 2026.

Which company is bigger?
Walmart by revenue: about $681 billion in fiscal 2025 versus J&J’s target of more than $100 billion in 2026. They are completely different business models, so size alone says little about quality.

Sources and How to Verify

For accuracy, cross-check against these categories: Walmart’s and J&J’s official press releases and SEC filings (10-Q, 8-K, proxy statements), PepsiCo’s board announcement, CNN and CBS News reporting on the Walmart transition, OneTen’s own site and launch announcement, and J&J’s executive biography pages. Facts in this article reflect information available as of October 11, 2026, and corporate roles can change quickly.

Conclusion: Two Leaders, Two Playbooks, One Shared Stage

Doug McMillon and Joaquin Duato have never run a company together, never partnered on a deal, and never shared a board seat. What they share is smaller but real: membership in the same CEO coalition, membership in the same rarefied tier of Fortune-level leadership, and a place in the same search results because both made major news in the past year.

McMillon retired from Walmart on January 31, 2026, after a career that began in a stockroom and ended with a $681 billion revenue machine and a roughly 300% stock gain. Duato is still mid-transformation at Johnson & Johnson, spinning off Kenvue and Orthopaedics, betting $55 billion on the United States, and steering a 140-year-old company toward its first $100 billion revenue year.

Their careers offer two contrasting lessons. McMillon proved that continuity is a strategy an orderly handoff, an insider successor, and a year-plus advisory role protect billions in market value. Duato is proving that focus beats size he is growing J&J by subtracting businesses, not adding them, and betting that a tighter company is worth more than a sprawling one. Neither record is spotless. Walmart’s low-price model still draws wage and competition criticism. J&J’s talc litigation and drug-pricing fights remain unresolved.

The honest answer to “why are people searching for them together” is less dramatic than any conspiracy-minded article would suggest. They are two of the most consequential CEOs of the moment, they belong to the same small professional circle, and their strategies sit at opposite ends of the same question every board faces: when do you hand off, and when do you double down? The next 12 months Duato’s PepsiCo board seat, the Orthopaedics separation, J&J’s $100 billion milestone, and Walmart under John Furner will tell us more than any biography can.

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