Frederick Ross Johnson, OC (December 13, 1931 – December 29, 2016) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

businessman, best known as the chief executive officer of RJR Nabisco in the 1980s.

Early life and education

Born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, on December 13, 1931, into a lower-middle-class family, Johnson used a military cadet scholarship program to attend the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Myanmar, ...

degree and was President of the

fraternity A fraternity (from Latin language, Latin ''wiktionary:frater, frater'': "brother (Christian), brother"; whence, "wiktionary:brotherhood, brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club (organization), club or fraternal ...

Phi Delta Theta Phi Delta Theta (), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, along with Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad ...

. He went on to earn an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

in 1956.

Career

Johnson first worked as an

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

for

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

and as a vice-president of

merchandising Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more i ...

for the

T. Eaton Company The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

before being named president of

Standard Brands Standard Brands was a packaged foods company, formed in 1929 by J. P. Morgan with the merger of: * Fleischmann Company *Royal Baking Powder Company * E. W. Gillett Company of Canada (1929) - Toronto-based baking goods company (maker of Magic Bak ...

Ltd. Johnson negotiated a

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

between Standard Brands and Nabisco with Nabisco CEO Bob Schaeberle in 1981. Soon after, Schaeberle left Nabisco, and Johnson took the helm, replacing many Nabisco executives with ones from Standard Brands. After growing restlessness, he went into talks that led to the Nabisco-RJ Reynolds merger in 1985. He was soon appointed president and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of RJR Nabisco. Johnson appeared on the December 5, 1988, cover of ''Time'' magazine under the headline "A Game of Greed". After dismal stock performance following the

1987 stock market crash Black Monday is the name commonly given to the global, sudden, severe, and largely unexpected stock market crash on Monday, October 19, 1987. In Australia and New Zealand, the day is also referred to as ''Black Tuesday'' because of the time z ...

, Johnson decided to put the company in play. Originally, he planned to execute a management-led

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

with

Shearson Lehman Hutton Shearson was the name of a series of investment banking and retail brokerage firms from 1902 until 1994, named for Edward ShearsonBarbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco'' by ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' columnists

Bryan Burrough Bryan Burrough (born August 13, 1961, in Tennessee) is an American author and correspondent for ''Vanity Fair''. He has written six books. Burrough was a reporter for ''The Wall Street Journal'' in Dallas, Texas, between 1983 and 1992. He ha ...

and

John Helyar John Helyar (born 1951) is an American journalist and author. He is a graduate of Boston University. He is married to ''The Wall Street Journal''’s Betsy Morris. Helyar has worked for ''The Wall Street Journal'', Fortune magazine, ESPN.com, E ...

, and in the movie of the same name made for

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

. In the film, Johnson was portrayed by

James Garner James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including '' The Great Escape'' (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Chayefsky's ''The Ameri ...

. Following the RJR Nabisco takeover by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. led by

Henry Kravis Henry R. Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. Until he resigned in March 2009, he was chairman of AuthentiDate Holding Corp., a United States publicly traded company. He served on the board of directors of several companies including Bentley Pharmaceuticals. Johnson also served on the advisory board of

Power Corporation of Canada Power Corporation of Canada () is a management and holding company that focuses on financial services in North America, Europe and Asia. Its core holdings are insurance, retirement, wealth management and investment management, including a portfol ...

Personal life

Johnson maintained homes in

La Jolla, California La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

and

Jupiter, Florida Jupiter is the northernmost town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the town had a population of 61,047 as of April 1, 2020. It is 84 miles north of Miami, and the northernmost community in the Miami met ...

.Parker, Charles Whatley; and Greene, Barnet M
"F. Ross Johnson"
''Who's Who in Canada: An Illustrated Biographical Record of Men and Women of the Time, Volume 73'', p. 421, International Press Limited., 1982. . Accessed June 28, 2011. "Residence: 210 East Mountain Road, Sparta, New Jersey 07871". He was made a trustee of

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

and served on the advisory councils of several universities. The Distinguished Visitors Program at the

Centre for the Study of the United States was endowed by Johnson in 2001.

Death

Johnson died on December 29, 2016, at his home in

, seventeen days after his 85th birthday from pneumonia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, F. Ross 1931 births 2016 deaths American tobacco industry executives Businesspeople from Winnipeg Officers of the Order of Canada People from Sparta, New Jersey R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Canadian chief executives Duke University trustees