Michael O. Johnson (born 1954) is an American

business executive A business executive is a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. Executives run companies or government agencies. They create plans to help their organizations gr ...

. He is currently the Executive Chairman of

Herbalife Herbalife Nutrition Ltd., also called Herbalife International, Inc. (with a U.S. subsidiary called Herbalife International of America) or simply Herbalife, is an American multinational multi-level marketing (MLM) corporation that develops and se ...

. He also worked as the president of the international division at the

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Early life

Michael O. Johnson is a former CEO of Herbalife Nutrition. He previously served as President of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

, Publisher of ''Audio Times'' magazine, and held roles at

The Movie Channel The Movie Channel (often abbreviated as TMC) is an American pay television, premium television network owned by Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global operated through its Paramount Media Networks division. Not including CBS, it is t ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

, and

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

channels of the Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company. Johnson received his Bachelor of Arts in political science from

Western State Colorado University Western Colorado University (WCU or Western) is a public university in Gunnison, Colorado. It enrolls approximately 3,000 undergraduate and 450 graduate students, with 25 percent coming from out of state. Western offers more than 100 undergradua ...

Early career

Disney

Johnson worked at the

for 17 years at Walt Disney International before he became president in 2000. During that time, he expanded Disney's international home video business and concentrated on making Disney's global operations and business relations more efficient. He created Disney subsidiaries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, and increased Disney's international markets from 34 to 80. Under Johnson's leadership, Disney became the top home distribution organization, and led the company to produce over $1 billion in revenue. Johnson notably set out to acquire the film library of Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

director-animator

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

. Johnson had, in fact, previously commented on the allure of Miyazaki's filmography in the 1998 HBO TV special ''Animation, Anime, and Spawn: Cartoons Just Grew Up'', "We have many animators here inside the Disney Corporation who are very...enthused by our relationship with Miyazaki and are also big fans of his." While individual films by Miyazaki had previously been licensed for the U.S., such as the

Fox Video 20th Century Home Entertainment (previously known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC. and also known as 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment) was a home video distribution arm that distributes films produced by 20th Century Stud ...

release of ''

My Neighbor Totoro is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. It stars the voices of Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto and Hitoshi Takagi, and focuses on two young sisters a ...

'', an acquisition of the complete film library was made difficult, as Miyazaki's relationship with international redistribution had been soured by significantly altered releases of Miyazaki's films, such as the highly edited Manson International release of '' Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'' as '' Warriors of the Wind''. After some negotiations, Johnson's team was able to secure the rights to Miyazaki's complete library.

Herbalife

As CEO

Johnson joined Herbalife Nutrition as CEO in 2003, and served as Chairman beginning in 2007. Johnson emphasized the need to pivot the Herbalife brand away from being exclusively concerned with weight-loss products and the broader perceptions associated with

multi-level marketing Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial and sometimes illegal marketing strategy for the sale of products or services in which the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salarie ...

, a view which he described in an interview with ''

Fortune Magazine ''Fortune'' (stylized in all caps) is an American global business magazine headquartered in New York City. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, a global business media company. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. T ...

'' as, "When I took over in 2003, Herbalife was a multilevel-marketing company that sold nutrition products. Now it's a nutrition company that uses multilevel marketing as its distribution channel." To achieve this, Johnson instituted quality controls, moved Herbalife's product manufacturing to be in-house, and widened Herbalife's product offerings. To emphasize Herbalife's new focus on general fitness and nutrition, Johnson expanded its sports sponsorships to include more than 200 teams and athletes, such as

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

, as well as company sponsorship of the LA Galaxy professional soccer team. Johnson also sought to minimize company claims to distributors around exceptional "business opportunity" to set a more realistic tone during pitches. Johnson came to prominence between 2012 and 2015 following a short sale of

stock by

Bill Ackman William Albert Ackman (born May 11, 1966) is an American billionaire hedge fund manager who is the founder and chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. His investment approach has made him ...

and his hedge fund

Pershing Square Capital Management Pershing Square Capital Management is an American hedge fund management company founded and run by Bill Ackman, headquartered in New York City. Company history In 2004, Ackman started Pershing Square Capital Management with $54 million in fundi ...

. Ackman alleged that Herbalife is a

pyramid scheme A pyramid scheme is a business model which, rather than earning money (or providing Return on investment, returns on investments) by sale of legitimate product (business), products to an end consumer, mainly earns money by recruiting new members ...

and built a billion-dollar short position in Herbalife stock. Ackman's short position was widely covered by American media outlets and was the subject of the documentary '' Betting on Zero''. Johnson transitioned to the position of Executive Chairman in 2017, before returning to the role of chairman and CEO in 2019. During this time, Herbalife Nutrition grew its net sales from $1.1 billion in 2003 to $4.4 billion in 2017.

Return as Interim CEO

Johnson was made interim CEO at the beginning of 2019 following the resignation of Richard Goudis. In October 2022, Michael O. Johnson was named chairman and interim chief executive officer following the departure of Dr. John Agwunobi.

Return as Interim CEO

In May 2025, after Stephan Gratziani appointed as Herbalife's new CEO, Michael O. Johnson transitioned to the position of Executive Chairman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Michael O. Living people 1954 births American chief executives People associated with direct selling Western Colorado University alumni