When Dan Xavier joined Johnson & Johnson in June 2017, colleagues from previous jobs suggested to him that the company could be conservative in its approaches to marketing and technology. Some people might have taken that as a warning. Xavier viewed it as a challenge.

So there he was a few years and three promotions later, pitching an external solution to a thorny problem: The difficulty encountered by providers and patients in accessing the right content on the brand website for a J&J schizophrenia drug. He proposed using an AI-fueled technology that would allow visitors to input free text to search for information, a big-swing idea that would require his team to address a host of concerns from MLR – constituencies that, at J&J and elsewhere in pharma, generally don’t receive such ideas warmly.

Xavier fully appreciated the magnitude of the ask and, unlike many fast-moving marketers and technologists, empathized with the concerns of his peers in other internal groups. So he set about approaching them one by one, addressing concerns as they emerged. 

“I had to shape it in a way that each group would understand and appreciate. That’s the only way you build momentum and credibility,” he recalls.

It took innumerable meetings and emails and after-hours conversations, but Xavier ultimately received every clearance he needed. When the solution launched, it surpassed its goals quickly. It’s now in the process of being rolled out enterprise-wide.

“It was so hard but I’m really glad I did it. I really believed in the idea. I really believed it would help patients get this medication they need.”

Xavier brings this up a few hours after he pitched a group VP on a different idea, one which he believes could prove equally revolutionary… and equally hard to sell among internal audiences. He is nonetheless happy to put in the work, especially since he believes J&J’s receptivity to such pitches has increased considerably over the course of his tenure at the company. 

“If you have a good, solid idea that’s tied to a business benefit, and if you’re not afraid to advocate for it, it will get heard,” he says. “It will make its way up to the president of a therapeutic area and find funding. It will not die on the grapevine.”

This approach, and its inherent resilience, has garnered admiration from Xavier’s colleagues. Samantha Shubert, product manager, consumer marketing/neuroscience at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, recalls working with him on a challenging AI initiative. “What stood out was his ability to bring structure and clarity to a complex, evolving space,” she says. “He was instrumental in moving the effort from concept to reality. He doesn’t just think strategically; he ensures the work actually gets done, and done well.”

As group product director, schizophrenia market access at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines, Vik Ingle puts it, “Getting things actioned at J&J is really difficult, because people have a lot of competing priorities. What makes Dan a little different is that he didn’t let the first door that closed be the door that stopped him…. He built the right relationships and figured out how to navigate the system.”

‘The credo is real’

Xavier grew up on the Jersey shore, working at some of its fabled amusement parks during his teen summers. He was interested in history and sociology, with an eye on becoming a college professor. After a spell as a military police officer, Xavier returned to school and switched his major to political science. “That’s where the credits transferred the most,” he says with a laugh.

He took an unconventional path into advertising and marketing. While working at a mom-and-pop video store, he attempted to distinguish its offerings from those of the nearby monster chain. To do this, Xavier coordinated a program with a pizza parlor down the street – “we’ll send people to you, you send people to us” is the way he remembers it now. The program proved so successful that his shop expanded into two new locations.

“They said, ‘You could be our advertising manager.’ I was like, sure, I’ll try that.”

Xavier’s first job after graduation was at OgilvyOne, the first of several agencies he’d call home over the next 17 years. It wasn’t until he arrived at Razorfish Health in 2014, however, that he shifted his full attention to the healthcare space. 

“It just kind of happened,” Xavier recalls. “I became passionate about marketing by accident and then I became passionate about the healthcare space because I wanted to do good and appreciated the challenge.”

He also saw a clear professional opportunity. “Nobody wanted to do healthcare marketing. ‘Oh, it’s conservative and stodgy because it’s regulated. You can’t be creative,’” he continues. “Me, I saw that as a challenge.”

During his agency tenures, Xavier estimates that he worked with or was otherwise exposed to hundreds of health-adjacent companies. J&J stood out to him because, as he puts it, “The credo is very real. I promised myself that, if I ever went to a client role, it would be at J&J.”

Xavier’s initial efforts to get in the door didn’t go very far. Even as he worked on various pieces of J&J business at Razorfish and Cohn & Wolfe, he found himself shut out. “I get it, because this has always been a very competitive, very driven company,” he says. “You have the top students from the top schools applying, and here’s me with a degree from a place nobody’s ever heard of. But I kept at it.”

Xavier ultimately rolled the dice on himself, taking a considerable pay cut for the opportunity to join the company as a contractor. This put pressure on him in multiple ways: J&J enforces a strict two-year limit on its contracted staff, meaning that Xavier had a limited amount of time to prove his worth. To make up the salary difference, Xavier took a second job. On nights and weekends, he drove for a high-end limousine service.

“Sometimes you have to take a step backward before you take three steps forward,” Xavier says. “I knew I loved the company and I knew I loved the role. It was worth the risk.”

In April 2024, Xavier was promoted into his current role as product director, neuroscience franchise strategy. While it represented a professional milestone, it had a personal dimension as well. Xavier’s sister, unbeknownst to his family, suffered from depression. “Things did not end well,” he says simply.

Her plight tops the list of reasons that Xavier feels so strongly about his work in the neuroscience space. “When you find out you have cancer, very rarely are you gone tomorrow,” he explains. “If someone has treatment-resistant depression, all it takes is one second of doubt. It’s not like that in too many other areas, and I don’t want anyone else going through what my sister and my family went through.”

A compulsive creator

Xavier keeps plenty busy outside the office. He participates in a wide range of civic activities in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, helping coordinate the borough’s musical Porch Fest and serving as VP of its board of education. He’s also an avid sailor and cyclist, often taking photos of his adventures and writing about them semi-formally. “I use social media as an online diary. If my kids ever want to know more about who I am, that’s my written record,” he explains.

Despite encouragement from a cousin who works in magazine publishing, Xavier hasn’t entertained the possibility of pursuing writing in an official capacity. “I wouldn’t want to have to write against a schedule,” he continues. At the same time, he often finds himself powerless to fight the urge.

“It’s almost like a curse: When I have an idea or thought, I have to get it down on paper. My brain won’t relax until I do.”

Sometimes, Xavier adds, he writes for the sake of writing and then immediately deletes his work. “My wife is like, ‘You spent two hours writing that!’ I’m a weird guy.” 

While Xavier is focused on his role as a change agent within the neuroscience franchise, his peers expect him to continue to rise up the ranks, whether at J&J or elsewhere.

“I don’t know where he’ll be, but here’s what I’d love to see him do: Be at the forefront of innovation for patients, HCPs and the healthcare ecosystem by leveraging new tech to break old models,” Ingle says. “Dan has the ability to discern the utility in the shiny thing… He can solve the real problem rather than just say ‘let’s use AI.’”

Whatever comes next, Xavier hopes it will be at J&J. He acknowledges that the company encourages its top people to rotate between roles and responsibilities, in the interest of generating a broad range of organizational experience. But he believes that he has unfinished business in neuroscience.

“I need more time here,” he says. “There’s a tremendous pipeline of products and the company is really investing in the space. The organization has put its money where its mouth is and I want to be here for it.”

Xavier is proud that his oldest daughter, set to leave for college in a matter of weeks, plans to pursue a path similar to his own. She’s set to major in cognitive neuroscience, with an eye on attending medical school down the road.

“I didn’t say a word when she told me, but I was so happy,” Xavier says. “There’s such an overwhelming demand for what we do and for mental health services. There’s a severe shortage of treaters in the space. The idea that she could be a part of the solution – that just fills me with joy.”

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