Marcus Desmond, Commercial Excellence Director (Asia Pacific), Johnson & Johnson

Marcus is a recovering lawyer turned healthcare marketer with experience across Australia, the US and Asia.

He is currently Strategic Marketing Director for the pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson, leading brand strategy for the blood cancer portfolio across the Asia Pacific region. In his 8 years at J&J, Marcus has worked across several therapeutic areas from haematology to rheumatology and launched transformational drugs for a range of conditions including Crohn’s disease in Australia and multiple myeloma in the US.

Before his conversion to marketing Marcus practised law in Melbourne for 6 years, most recently in tax litigation at Deloitte where he ran large-scale corporate tax matters in the Federal Court of Australia.

Marcus is an advocate for putting strategy before tactics and keeping things simple wherever possible.

Marcus has an MBA from Melbourne Business School and bachelor’s degrees in Law and Business Systems from Monash University. When he’s not working, Marcus is trying to keep up with his two daughters and watching (whilst punting on) AFL and NBA.

Marcus Desmond Headshot scaled

NOMINATIONS FOR 2026 ARE OPEN!

The program is free but highly selective so firstly we ask senior business leaders working within Marketing, Media and Advertising to nominate the best of their emerging leaders for a place on the program. All ‘nominees’ then receive an ‘Invitation to Apply’ which includes essential information about the process.

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