Celgene Executive Chairman Bob Hugin is “definitely running” against U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) a GOP source told InsiderNJ.

“The party’s coalescing around Hugin,” the source said, dismissing other names that have floated in the vicinity of a 2018 challenge to Menendez. The source spoke to InsiderNJ even as key county chairs circled the wagons in Red Bank for a powwow.

According to a report by Matt Freidman at Politico, “Hugin could potentially self-finance his campaign. He made $22 million in 2014.”

Hugin served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Celgene from May 2006 to June 2010, and was elected by the Board of Directors to serve as a Director in December 2001. He joined the company in June 1999 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. A past Chairman of the Board of The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of Princeton University, Danaher Corporation, The Medicines Company and The Darden Foundation, University of Virginia. He also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Atlantic Health System and of Family Promise, a national non-profit network assisting homeless families. Prior to joining Celgene, Hugin was a Managing Director with J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc.

He received an AB degree from Princeton University in 1976 and an MBA from the University of Virginia in 1985 and served as a United States Marine Corps infantry officer during the intervening period.

At the chairs’ meeting this evening, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno was expected to salute the chairs who backed her tonight. One source who did not attend noted that powerful Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore, a prime backer of Guadagno for Governor last year, had liked the idea of Guadagno taking another statewide shot against Menendez.