Robert John Hugin (born July 23, 1954) is an American businessman who was formerly the executive chairman of

Celgene Celgene Corporation is a pharmaceutical company that makes cancer and immunology drugs. Its major product is Revlimid ( lenalidomide), which is used in the treatment of multiple myeloma, and also in certain anemias. The company is incorporated i ...

, a biopharmaceutical company. Hugin was the Republican nominee in the 2018 United States Senate election in New Jersey, where he was defeated by incumbent Democratic senator Bob Menendez. In 2020, he ran for chairman of the New Jersey Republican Party, but was defeated by former Hackettstown mayor Michael Lavery. In 2021, following his victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary, former state assemblyman

Jack Ciattarelli Jack M. Ciattarelli ( ; born December 12, 1961) is an American politician and businessman. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the New Jersey General Assembly from 2011 to 2018, representing the 16th legislative district. He was also t ...

endorsed Hugin to lead the state Republican Party. Because the party's gubernatorial nominee traditionally selects the party chair, Hugin replaced Lavery without any opposition.

Education and military service

Hugin grew up in

Union City, New Jersey Union City is a city in the northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census the city had a total population of 68,589, He earned a

Bachelor of Arts degree Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1976. After graduating, Hugin served in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

as an active duty infantry officer from 1976 to 1983. In 1985, Hugin earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in business administration from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. At Princeton, Hugin was president of the male-only

Tiger Inn Tiger Inn (or "T.I." as it is colloquially known) is one of the eleven active eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. Tiger Inn was founded in 1890 and is one of the "Big Four" eating clubs at Princeton (the others are T ...

, a highly selective private

eating club A dining club (UK) or eating club (US) is a social group, usually requiring membership (which may, or may not be available only to certain people), which meets for dinners and discussion on a regular basis. They may also often have guest speakers. ...

on campus. As president, he opposed the membership of gay men in 1976, stating that a member discovered to be gay "wouldn't last long." Later, as president of the alumni board of Tiger Inn, he led the club's opposition to a 13-year series of lawsuits during the 1980s and 1990s to require the club to admit women, describing the legal campaign to "politically correct fascism”. In 2018, he said that his views on these issues had since changed.

Career

From 1985 to 1999, Hugin worked at J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc. and was a managing director. Hugin has been credited with saving the

biotech Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

corporation

and turning it profitable. He joined the company in June 1999 as senior vice president and

CFO The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

. At the time, Celgene had approximately 200 employees and less than six weeks of cash. He was elected to Celgene's board of directors in December 2001. Hugin served as Celgene's president and

COO COO or coo may refer to: Business * Certificate of origin, used in international trade * Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official * Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process ...

since May 2006 and became the CEO of Celgene in June 2010. In June 2011, he was elected chairman of the Celgene board of directors. In his time at Celgene the market capitalization of the company went from $100 million to $70 billion, and headcount grew to 6,000. During Hugin's tenure, Celgene was reprimanded multiple times by the U.S Food and Drug Administration, including a formal warning letter in 2000 for not sharing all the risks associated with their drugs, and for marketing their drug

Thalomid Thalidomide, sold under the brand names Contergan and Thalomid among others, is a medication used to treat a number of cancers (including multiple myeloma), graft-versus-host disease, and a number of skin conditions including complications of ...

and others to doctors for unapproved uses. In 2017, Celgene was forced to pay $280 million in response to a lawsuit regarding these practices. Hugin has been criticized for drastically raising the prices of several drugs while he was in charge of Celgene. For example, in 2006, the drug Revlimid was introduced to the market and cost about $6,000 for a one-month supply. Celgene was able to actively prevent generic versions of the drug from being sold, and by the year 2017, the price for the same amount of Revlimid had been raised by Celgene to over $16,000. In 2013, Hugin was named the best CEO in

by TheStreet.com. He left his position at Celgene as chief executive and became an executive chairman in 2017.

2018 U.S. Senate election

On February 13, 2018, Hugin announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey. In the first quarter of 2018, his campaign raised a little under $8 million, of which $7.5 million was a loan from Hugin himself. He defeated Brian Goldberg in the Republican primary that took place on June 5, 2018, by garnering 75% of the vote, to Goldberg's 24%. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

endorsed Hugin via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

on Election Day. On November 6, 2018, Hugin was defeated by incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez.

Political positions

On his 2018 campaign website for the U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey, Hugin described himself as a "different kind of Republican", "moderate" and "independent". On social issues, Hugin is more socially liberal than most Republicans. He advertised his support for legal abortion and gay marriage.

Abortion

Hugin announced that he is

pro-choice Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pr ...

on abortion and supports

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

in a campaign ad. After announcing that he supports legal abortion, Hugin "lost the support of New Jersey Right to Life, the state’s largest

pro-life Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respon ...

group." Hugin opposes late term abortions unless the life of the mother is at risk. He supported the

nomination Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In the ...

of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and has said he would support similarly conservative judicial Supreme Court candidates, causing some to question whether he would be proactive about defending abortion rights.

Healthcare

Hugin would like to keep parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He would also like to limit out-of-pocket payments including prescription co-payments.

Immigration

He opposed the

Trump administration family separation policy The United States family separation policy under the Trump administration was presented to the public as a "zero tolerance" approach intended to deter illegal immigration and to encourage tougher legislation. In some cases, families followi ...

, and announced that he supports a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants.

LGBT rights

Hugin used to oppose gay marriage and gay rights, including advocating against extending non-discrimination rights to

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

students at

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

. He has since changed his stance and now fully supports the right of LGBT people to get married.

Taxes

Hugin "calls himself a

fiscal conservative Fiscal conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, and ''laissez-faire'' economics.M. O. Dickerson et al., ''A ...

opposed to tax increases in a state with the highest property taxes." He supports making individual tax cuts permanent, and also opposes the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction imposed by the

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act The Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, , is a congressional revenue act of the United States originally introduced in Congress as the Tax Cuts and Jobs A ...

, saying that it is too low.

Donald Trump

Hugin supported

's presidential candidacy, was the finance chairman of Trump's New Jersey campaign, and donated $100,000 in 2016 to the Trump Victory Fund to help get Trump elected. Hugin also acted as a delegate supporting Trump's nomination at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He has since said that some of Trump's policies are hurting businesses.

Personal life

Bob Hugin is married to Kathy Hugin. They have three children. Hugin is a member of the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...

. He and his wife earned more than $34 million between 2015 and 2016.

References

External links

2018 U.S. Senate campaign website (archive)

Bob Hugin at Ballotpedia
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hugin, Robert 1954 births 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American politicians American health care chief executives American philanthropists Businesspeople from New Jersey Candidates in the 2018 United States Senate elections Living people Military personnel from New Jersey New Jersey Republicans Politicians from Union County, New Jersey Princeton University alumni United States Marine Corps officers University of Virginia Darden School of Business alumni United States Marine Corps reservists