DSN’s Top Women event presents posthumous award to MPG’s Rhonda Johnson
At its 5th 5th Annual Top Women in Health, Wellness & Beauty event in Chicago last week, Drug Store News presented a posthumous Business Excellence Award to Market Performance Group’s Rhonda Johnson, who passed away in early 2023 after a brief battle with metastatic melanoma.
Johnson’s daughter, Cassidy, accepted the award on her mother’s behalf and delivered a poignant speech honoring her mom.
Johnson was a respected and dynamic consumer packaged goods and healthcare leader who held senior executive positions with various companies, including Merck Consumer Care, McNeil Nutritionals and Johnson & Johnson. However, she often said her biggest success in life was her children, daughter Cassidy and son Alec.
Rhonda “was a beloved member of our MPG family and leaves behind a significant legacy," MPG Founder and Managing Partner Marc Greenberger said at the time of her death. "An outstanding business leader, inspiring mentor and close friend to so many in the industry. She will be remembered for her incredible passion, loyalty and the commitment that she always brought to her clients and to her team.”
At the event, Cassidy delivered the following speech:
“Good evening. My name is Cassidy Johnson and I am the daughter of Rhonda Johnson. When I was asked to talk about my mom and this industry a theme kept coming to mind. I am a kindergarten teacher so I love a good theme, and the theme that kept coming to mind when thinking about my mom and work was balance.
My whole life, I always remember my mom working. But not in the way where I never saw my mom. I remember being a little kid running the halls of the Skillman J&J looking for the best character bubble toppers with her. Her eating dinner with us at home but then having to jump on a call with clients around the world because it was their morning work time. I remember her coming to all school and sporting events in her fancy work clothes cheering me and my brother on every step of the way. A lot of you mention that you knew how much she loved my brother and I and how proud she was of us, well I want you to know that we, as her family, also knew how proud she was of the people she worked with. She balanced work and family and gave her all on both sides of that scale.
From a very young age, I knew my mom worked her butt off to make it in this industry. An industry and job she truly loved. But like with her family, she had that balance. She worked hard and made sure her team worked hard, she spoke her mind, and got stuff done but she also loved to kick back and have a good time. I love looking back at pictures and hearing funny stories of not just amazing meetings and work milestones but crazy work trips to London and Paris or when her whole team wore red wigs and she cried she laughed so hard. She had that amazing balance of working hard but also not taking work too seriously. At the end of the day she loved nothing more than dancing around and making sure everyone was dancing and enjoying life with her.
As I look out at all of you at this wonderful event, honoring women in this hard, but awesome industry, the one thing I want you to remember is balance. I hope you love your job, just like my mom did, and that it shines through you for your families at home to see. Yes, my mom was an unbelievable mother, wife, daughter, and friend, but she was also an amazing coworker and mentor and she loved working with amazing people like you every day! Thank you so much for honoring our mom and sharing her love for this job.”
Johnson is survived by her husband, Tim and her children.