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OUR CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Micheal O. Johnson
Since Johnson joined Herbalife in April 2003, the company strengthened product development by establishing Nutrition and Scientific Advisory Boards and funding the creation of the Mark Hughes Cellular and Molecular Nutrition Laboratory at UCLA.
Under his direction, the company has had a “mega” product launch each year including Niteworks™ for overall cardiovascular wellness in 2003; the ShapeWorks™ weight-management program and Garden 7™, essential fruit and vegetable phytonutrients in convenient daily packs in 2004; vitamin-based skin-care line NouriFusion™ and Liftoff™, the first effervescent energy drink in dissolvable tablet form, in 2005; and immunity booster Best Defense®, and Skin Activator® anti-aging line in 2006.On the financial side, Johnson engineered a recapitalization of the company, leading a public debt offering that reduced the LBO debt and returned $380 million to existing shareholders. In December 2004, he led the company’s initial public offering and listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:HLF). The IPO improved Herbalife’s capital structure replacing $270 million of higher yield fixed debt with $200 million of lower yield variable debt. The company had record retail sales of $3 billion in 2006.Johnson spent 17 years with The Walt Disney Company. While leading Buena Vista Home Entertainment, he restructured the way the video rental industry operated by shifting to a revenue-sharing business model, introduced the Disney “sell-thru” business globally, and engineered the master plan for expansion of the company’s worldwide video presence by establishing Disney subsidiaries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
As president of Walt Disney International, Johnson devised and launched “Disney I”, a subscription entertainment service with NTT DoCoMo in Japan that serves in excess of three million subscribers. Before assuming his role at Disney, Johnson served as publisher of Audio Times magazine and was a sales and marketing executive with Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company directing activities for MTV, Nickelodeon and The Movie Channel on the west coast. |