J. Michael Pearson
Canadian-American businessman and former Valeant Pharmaceuticals CEO
J. Michael Pearson (born 1959) is a Canadian American pharmaceutical company executive. He is the former chairman and CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International after being ousted in the aftermath of a report on pharmaceutical pricing published by Citron Research in April 2016.
On April 27, 2016, Pearson, Bill Ackman and Howard Schiller appeared before the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging to answer concerns over the repercussions for patients and the health care system whom are affected by Valeant's business model.
In 2017, Pearson sued Valeant Pharmaceuticals for $31 million as compensation for his alleged wrongful termination as CEO and chairman. In December 2017, a New Jersey judge ruled that Pearson should pursue his claim by arbitration rather than through the courts.
Early life and education
Pearson was born in London, Ontario, Canada. His father worked for Bell Canada and "helped design the phone lines in some of the small towns" and also worked at global consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Pearson moved to New Jersey with his family when he was 12 years old.
In 1981, he graduated summa cum laude from Duke University, where he earned his BS and BSE; he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He then earned an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.
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This entry incorporates text from “J. Michael Pearson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.