People: J

J

• J. Bruce IsmayPresident of the International Mercantile Marine Company in 1912.
• J. Edgar Hoover 1895–1972Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1963 and 1964.
• J. Otto PohlAmerican historian of the Soviet deportations.
• J. P. Morgan 1837–1913New York banker who led J. P. Morgan & Co.
• J. P. Morgan Jr.Son of J. P. Morgan; senior partner of J. P. Morgan & Co. after 1913.
• J. Robert Oppenheimer 1904–1967Physicist who directed the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Second World War.
• J. William FulbrightU.S. senator from Arkansas; chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1959 to 1974.
• Jack Abramoff 1958 –Former Washington lobbyist who pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy, honest services mail fraud and tax evasion, and was sentenced in 2025 in a separate fraud case.
• Jack AltmanEntrepreneur and investor; co-founded the HR software company Lattice in 2015 and was its CEO until January 2024; brother of Sam Altman.
• Jack B. WeinsteinU.S. federal judge who presided over the Agent Orange litigation in Brooklyn.
• Jack Ruby 1911–1967Dallas man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald on 24 November 1963. He was found guilty of murder in March 1964; the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction in October 1966.
• Jackie Bezos 1946 – 14 Aug 2025Mother of Jeff Bezos; early Amazon investor; co-founder of the Bezos Family Foundation.
• Jacobo ÁrbenzPresident of Guatemala from 1951 until he gave up power on 27 June 1954.
• Jacques Necker 1732–1804French finance minister who published the royal accounts in 1781 and was recalled in 1788.
• James ComerRepublican U.S. Representative from Kentucky.
• James Franck 1882–1964Physicist in Chicago whose committee wrote the report of June 1945 against an unannounced attack.
• James M. WilsonAmerican geneticist; director of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Human Gene Therapy at the time of the 1999 gene therapy trial in which Jesse Gelsinger died. Founder of Genovo.
• James MattisRetired Marine general; Theranos director from 2013 and later U.S. Secretary of Defense.
• James P. GrantAmerican head of UNICEF from 1980 to 1995.
• James StockdaleU.S. Navy pilot who flew over the destroyers on the night of 4 August 1964.
• James W. McCord Jr. 1924–2017Security officer of the Committee for the Reelection of the President, convicted in the Watergate break-in.
• Jamie DimonPresident and chief operating officer of JPMorgan Chase in January 2005.
• Jared DiamondAuthor of Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997).
• Jason DroegeTechnology executive; joined Scale AI in September 2024 and, as its chief strategy officer, was named interim CEO in June 2025.
• Jay RockefellerU.S. senator from West Virginia; chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2008.
• Jean KambandaPrime Minister of Rwanda’s interim government from April to July 1994; pleaded guilty to genocide before the Rwanda Tribunal.
• Jean-Bosco BarayagwizaBoard member of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines and founding member of the CDR party; convicted by the Rwanda Tribunal in the Media case.
• Jean-Paul AkayesuMayor (bourgmestre) of Taba commune in 1994; convicted of genocide by the Rwanda Tribunal in 1998.
• Jean-Rémy DuvalFrench Air Force lieutenant-colonel who led a reconnaissance of Bisesero on 27 June 1994.
• Jed RakoffU.S. District Judge in New York who in 2011 declined to approve the SEC’s settlement with Citigroup.
• Jeff Bezos 12 Jan 1964 –Founder and executive chair of Amazon; founder of Blue Origin.
• Jefferson MorleyJournalist who has written about the Kennedy assassination; in 2003 he asked the CIA for its records on George Joannides and later sued for them.
• Jeffery AmherstBritish commander in chief in North America in 1763.
• Jeffrey BienInternal medicine resident at Oregon Health and Science University in 2016; co-author of the BMJ letter on FDA reviewers' later jobs.
• Jeffrey OstlerHistorian of the University of Oregon; writes that genocide is the right word for much U.S. violence against Native nations.
• Jeffrey SkillingFormer chief executive of Enron; convicted in Houston in 2006 of conspiracy, securities fraud and other counts.
• Jennifer SchulpDirector of Financial Regulation Studies at the Cato Institute (2021).
• Jens HainmuellerPolitical scientist; co-author of Capitol Losses. An assistant professor at MIT when the paper was written.
• Jerome c. 347–c. 419Biblical translator and monastic leader who settled in Bethlehem; known for the Latin Bible called the Vulgate.
• Jerome FonsFormer Moody’s managing director who testified to Congress and to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
• Jesse M. ShapiroEconomist; co-author of "What Drives Media Slant?".
• Jessica LivingstonAmerican investor, a co-founder of Y Combinator; one of OpenAI's launch donors.
• Jesus c. 4 BCE – c. 30Jewish preacher from Galilee; the central figure of Christianity and a prophet in Islam.
• Jim Breyer 1961 –Venture capitalist; Accel partner who led its 2005 investment in Facebook.
• Jim GrubeAppointed to GameStop's board in January 2021, with Ryan Cohen, under an agreement with RC Ventures.
• Jim InhofeRepublican U.S. Senator from Oklahoma in 2020; chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee.
• Jimmy CarterU.S. President who hosted the Camp David talks of 1978.
• Joe BidenPresident of the United States from 2021 to 2025.
• Johann EckTheologian of Ingolstadt who debated Karlstadt and Luther at Leipzig in 1519.
• Johann Froben c. 1460–1527Printer at Basel who published Erasmus's Greek New Testament in 1516 and Luther's first collected works in 1518.
• Johann RupertChairman of Richemont.
• Johann Tetzel c. 1465 – Aug 1519Dominican friar who preached the indulgence of 1517 in Germany for Archbishop Albert of Mainz.
• Johannes Gutenberg c. 1400 – 3 Feb 1468?German printer credited with introducing movable metal type to Europe.
• Johannes LepsiusGerman theologian who gathered German diplomatic papers on the deportations and testified as an expert at the Berlin trial of 1921.
• John B. HessChief executive of Hess Corporation until Chevron bought it in 2025; a Chevron director since 28 July 2025.
• John BoehnerRepublican U.S. Representative; House Minority Leader in 2009 and Speaker of the House when 60 Minutes aired its report.
• John Brown (Providence merchant)Providence merchant, partner in Nicholas Brown and Company, treasurer of the College of Rhode Island.
• John BrownleeU.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia who brought the 2007 OxyContin case.
• John C. Bogle 8 May 1929 – 16 Jan 2019Founder of the Vanguard Group and pioneer of index mutual funds.
• John C. CutlerPublic Health Service physician who worked on the Terre Haute and Guatemala experiments and, the Commission says, on the Tuskegee study.
• John Chivington 1821–1894Colonel who commanded the Colorado troops at Sand Creek.
• John D. Archbold 1848–1916U.S. oil executive, a leader of Standard Oil.
• John D. Rockefeller 1839–1937U.S. businessman who founded Standard Oil and later gave much of his fortune away.
• John D. Rockefeller Jr.Son of John D. Rockefeller; director of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company in 1914.
• John Dean 1938 –White House counsel to President Nixon, who pleaded guilty and testified to the Senate committee.
• John DingellU.S. Representative from Michigan; chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee when it investigated the generic drug scandal.
• John Doerr 1951 –Venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins; early board member of Amazon and Google.
• John Ehrlichman 1925–1999White House aide to President Nixon, convicted in the Fielding break-in and the Watergate cover-up.
• John F. Kennedy 29 May 1917 – 22 Nov 196335th President of the United States (1961–1963).
• John Foster Dulles 1888–1959U.S. Secretary of State under President Eisenhower.
• John GlennU.S. senator (D) from Ohio in 1991; one of the Keating Five.
• John H. MunroEconomic historian at the University of Toronto; wrote the EH.Net review essay on Hamilton's book.
• John HennessyComputer scientist; president of Stanford University from 2000; Google director from 2004.
• John J. DeGioiaPresident of Georgetown University from 2001 to 2025.
• John J. HerrickU.S. Navy captain who commanded the Maddox task force on 2-4 August 1964.
• John J. Ray IIIRestructuring executive; chief executive of the bankrupt FTX from 11 November 2022.
• John Marshall 1755–1835Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835.
• John Marshall Harlan 1833–1911Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1877 to 1911.
• John McCainU.S. senator (R) from Arizona in 1991; one of the Keating Five.
• John McCone 1902–1991Director of Central Intelligence from November 1961 to April 1965.
• John N. Mitchell 1913–1988U.S. Attorney General under President Nixon, convicted in the Watergate cover-up.
• John Opel 1925 – 3 Nov 2011IBM president (1974–1983) and chief executive (1981–1985).
• John Paul StevensU.S. Supreme Court justice who joined in the Court’s opinion in McConnell v. FEC (2003) and dissented in part in Citizens United v. FEC (2010).
• John RidgeCherokee leader of the Treaty Party; signed the Treaty of New Echota.
• John RobertsChief Justice of the United States; wrote the plurality opinion in McCutcheon v. FEC (2014) and the Court’s opinion in McDonnell v. United States (2016).
• John RossPrincipal Chief of the Cherokee Nation; led the Cherokee government that opposed removal.
• John Sirica 1904–1992Chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia during Watergate.
• John TernusApple's CEO since 1 September 2026, previously its senior vice president of hardware engineering.
• John ThainChief executive of Merrill Lynch in 2008.
• Jonathan HayAmerican lawyer; General Director of Harvard's Russia project at the Harvard Institute for International Development, based in Moscow.
• Jonathan SacklerMember of the family that owned Purdue Pharma; named in the 2020 Justice Department civil settlement.
• Joni ErnstRepublican U.S. Senator from Iowa; voted against the HONEST Act in committee in July 2025.
• Joseph BiedermanAmerican child psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Died 5 January 2023.
• Joseph L. HooleyFormer chair and chief executive of State Street; lead independent director of Exxon Mobil Corporation.
• Joseph MarryatChairman of Lloyd’s of London from 1811 to 1824; the Maritime Executive calls him a West Indies plantation owner and pro-slavery politician.
• Joseph P. Kennedy 6 Sep 1888 – 18 Nov 1969Businessman; first chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 1934 to 1935.
• Joseph PulitzerNewspaper publisher; publisher of the New York World in the 1890s.
• Joseph Stalin 18 Dec 1878 – 5 Mar 1953Soviet leader; General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 until his death in 1953.
• Josh HawleyRepublican U.S. Senator from Missouri; sponsor of the HONEST Act.
• Joshua D. WrightLaw professor; was an FTC commissioner from 2013 to 2015; became executive director of the Global Antitrust Institute.
• José AzarEconomist at the University of Navarra and IESE Business School; co-author of a 2018 study of common ownership of US airlines.
• José BaselgaOncologist; chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center until September 2018, later head of oncology research and development at AstraZeneca. Died 21 March 2021.
• Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui SalcamayhuaAndean author of an account of Inca antiquities, writing in Spanish colonial Peru, by his translator's reckoning about 1620.
• Juan Ginés de SepúlvedaSpanish theologian and royal historian who argued that war on the Indians could be just.
• Juan LuCo-owner, with her husband, of a company that received Department of Energy small-business technology grants. Pleaded guilty to using documents with false statements; sentenced in 2023.
• JudaLeader of the people of Bikini Atoll in 1946, when the U.S. asked them to leave for atomic tests.
• Julia KochHolds, with her three children, a 42 percent stake in Koch, Inc., Forbes says.
• Juvénal HabyarimanaPresident of Rwanda; killed when his plane was shot down on 6 April 1994.