Background

A chartered professional accountant, Jobin was employed at Imasco Limited and Imperial Tobacco Canada (ITC), BAT’s Canadian subsidiary, from 1989 to 2005.³⁴⁵ Initially performing marketing roles, he became President and CEO of ITC in September 2003.¹³

Jobin was Executive Vice President at the Power Corporation of Canada from 2005 to 2009,¹³ before moving on to senior roles in the Canadian National Railway Company (CN). He was President and CEO of CN from July 2016 to March 2018.⁶⁷

In October 2020, BAT announced that Jobin would be appointed Chairman Designate from 1 March 2021, and formally take up the role after the AGM on 28 April 2021.¹

Board Memberships

Jobin served as an independent Non-Executive Director at Reynolds American, Inc., parent company to RJ Reynolds,³ from 2008 until BAT acquired the company in July 2017 and Jobin joined the BAT board.

At the time of BAT’s announcement in October 2020, Jobin was also on the boards of Gildan Activewear Inc and Hydro-Québec.

Relevant Link

A current list of BAT’s Board of Directors can be found on the BAT website.

TobaccoTactics Resources

• British American Tobacco
• Imperial Tobacco Canada: Involvement in Cigarette Smuggling

References

The post Luc Jobin appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Long Career with Altria

Begley joined Philip Morris USA, an Altria company, in 1995, where he held various positions including:⁹

• Vice President, Brand Management
• Vice President, Strategy & Business Development
• Vice President, Marketing & Promotion Services
• Vice President: Brand Management, Smokeless
• Vice President, Brand Management, Philip Morris USA
• Vice President, Customer & Marketing Services, AGDC

Immediately prior to being appointed COO, Begley served as President and General Manager of Nu Mark, through which Altria produced e-cigarettes until December 2018.¹⁰ Read more on our E-cigarettes: Altria page.

Begley is one of three Altria employees serving on the board of the Cronos Group, a Canada-based cannabis company.¹¹ In 2018, Altria announced it had acquired a 45% stake in Cronos Group, due to increase to 55% by 2022.¹²

Relevant Links

• Altria Leadership Team

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Altria

References

The post Jody Begley appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Revolving Door

Verdeaux began his career in 1995 in the French civil service as an adviser to the French Minister for European Affairs, in the French Senate, and later cabinet adviser at the European Commission. He then became a manager at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2005.³ UNDP is the lead UN development agency, and focusses on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).¹⁴

In 2007, Verdeaux was appointed Director of Strategy Finance at UNITAID, a partnership of the World Health Organisation (WHO).¹⁵ He then returned to French government, serving as the Deputy Head of Cabinet for the then-President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, from 2008 to 2011.³

After leaving civil service for a second time, Verdeaux transitioned to commercial industry. He worked as European Policy Director at Electricité De France (2011-2014) before joining Vodafone as Group International Policy Director (2014-2019).³ Immediately prior to joining PMI, Verdeaux was a partner at Hering Schuppener, a European strategic communications consultancy.¹³¹⁶

Relevant Links

• PMI Leadership Team

Tobacco Tactics Resources

• Philip Morris International

References

The post Gregoire Verdeaux appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Background

Christopher J. Proctor started working for British American Tobacco in 1983. Since then he has had several roles in the tobacco company, focused on tobacco research. He is listed as the Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Scientific Product Stewardship for British American Tobacco by BAT and on his LinkedIn profile. ¹⁷In March 2020 he was also listed as Head of Possible Reduced Risk Products Science.¹⁸

Career with British American Tobacco and other roles

Since 1983, Proctor has had numerous roles linked to the tobacco industry:

• 1983-1990: Senior Research Scientist at British American Tobacco Company in Southampton, UK. ¹⁹
• 1990-1993: Senior scientific advisor for the Washington D.C. law firm Covington & Burling. This law firm has a history of legally representing and consulting on corporate affairs for the tobacco industry.^{2021  22}
• 1993-2020: returned to BAT to focus on research on nicotine and tobacco as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of the Scientific Product Stewardship. ¹⁷

Links with Government officials and International Organisations

United Kingdom Parliament:

Proctor was a witness in the UK Parliamentary Select Committee on Science and Technology inquiry into e-cigarettes that took place in February 2018.Proctor was joined by tobacco industry colleagues from Philip Morris International, and Japan Tobacco International. Proctor gave evidence regarding the process of developing e-cigarettes and newer tobacco and nicotine products. He described BAT´s work as: “a journey in two ways: first, to be more satisfying; and, secondly, to be safer. That is where we are going”. ²³ Proctor also took advantage of this opportunity to lobby against the Tobacco Products Directive. ²³

European Union Commission:

Proctor chaired the steering group established by the Risk Forum of the European Policy Centre, supported at that time by the European Union Commission, in 2005.The European Risk Forum is a think-tank focused analysing the quality of risk assessment and risk management decisions at the EU level. Proctor was already working at BAT.^{24 25}

World Health Organization (WHO)

In the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents, there is evidence of Proctor lobbying to present at a meeting at WHO on BAT´s views of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Proctor  promoted the need for  governments  to use the evidence produced by the industry stating that: “national actions need to be informed by the best and most current scientific information”²⁶The letter was addressed to the former Head of the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative and since 2017 the Director of the Foundation for a Smoke Free World, a foundation solely funded by Philip Morris International.

Questioning the links between tobacco smoke and lung-cancer risk

In a confidential document from 1989 written by Proctor while representing BAT in a meeting about Asia, he praised the research findings of Linda Koo. Koo is a cancer epidemiologist and former lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. ²⁷

Proctor mentioned Koo´s research findings, highlighting that “her work suggests that there is no clear association between either lung cancer or chronic bronchitis in non-smokers and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). (…) Koo postulates that diet is the most significant confounder in the epidemiological studies of ETS exposure (…)” ²⁷ Proctor suggested funding her. ²⁷

Proctor continued to question the links between second-hand smoke and lung cancer.  A report prepared by the WHO includes this quote from Proctor in the Guardian in 1998:  “What we and other scientists have long believed that while smoking in public may be annoying to some non-smokers, the science does not show that being around a smoker is a lung-cancer risk.”²⁸

Casting doubt on nicotine addiction

In a WHO-prepared report on the tobacco industry it details an editorial in The Observer, written by Proctor in 1998, where he compares the addictiveness of nicotine with the effects of smoking and drinking tea or coffee. “Addiction is an emotive subject and it is certainly possible to define the term broadly enough to include smoking … The public’s understanding has changed significantly over recent decades … The current definition is more colloquial, reflected in terms like ‘chocoholic’ and ‘Addicted to love’. This colloquial definition is all inclusive and certainly applies to the use of many common substances that have familiar pharmacological effects to cigarettes, such as coffee, tea, chocolate and cola drinks.” ²⁸

In 2019, in a BAT-sponsored article in Politico, Transforming tobacco: Our commitment to harm reduction,  Proctor said: “Today, it’s widely acknowledged that nicotine in and of itself is not the cause of the majority of smoking-related health risks.”²⁹

South African ban on tobacco product sales during COVID 19: Proctor´s affidavit on behalf of BAT

The South African government introduced a ban on tobacco products sales during the COVID 19 pandemic³⁰ The tobacco industry opposed this measure. British American Tobacco filed legal actions against the government.

In June 2020, Proctor submitted an affidavit on behalf of BAT, where it was mentioned that “tobacco and vaping products are in many respects similar to coffee in the ways they are experienced and used by consumers”³¹

BAT-funded publications authored by Christopher Proctor in 2019-2020

All these articles were co-authored by Proctor and colleagues from British American Tobacco.

• Statistical analysis plan for “A randomised, controlled study to evaluate the effects of switching from cigarette smoking to using a tobacco heating product on health effect indicators in healthy subjects” March 2020³²

• A cross-category puffing topography, mouth level exposure and consumption study among Italian users of tobacco and nicotine products. January 2020 ³³

•  An inter-laboratory in vitro assessment of cigarettes and “next generation nicotine delivery products” August 2019.  ³⁴

• Use of social media to establish vapers puffing behaviour: Findings and implications for laboratory evaluation of e-cigarette emissions. July 2019³⁵

• Protocol for a Japanese nationwide repeated cross-sectional study to assess tobacco and nicotine product use behaviour after market introduction of tobacco heating products (THPs) May 2019.. ³⁶

Sponsored articles in Politico about harm-reduction products

• Why harm reduction and product safety standards go hand in hand It includes the disclaimer:“This content is aimed at informing policymakers and other stakeholders on scientific, regulatory and legal aspects concerning the market for nicotine products and is in no way intended to promote the use of any products towards consumers”³⁷
• Transforming tobacco: Our commitment to harm reduction, ³⁸

Tobacco Tactics resources

• British American Tobacco
• Philip Morris International
• Japan Tobacco International
• South Africa Country Profile

References

The post Christopher J. Proctor appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Background

Komoróczki began his career as a diplomat for the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, travelling across Europe and the former Soviet Union from 1979 until 1996.³

Career with Tobacco Industry

Komoróczki began working at Imperial Tobacco Hungary Ltd. in 2002 as Corporate Affairs Director. In 2010, he was promoted to European Director of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs in Belgium. From 2010 to 2013, he was based at Imperial’s EU Affairs office in Brussels.³

Career in Diplomacy and Government

After leaving Imperial in June 2013, Komoróczki returned to Hungary to work as the Minister of State Secretariat for Planning Coordination in the Ministry for National Economy until 2014.³⁹ In 2015, he became Advisor to the President of the National Federation of Consumer Co-operative Societies and Trade Associations (AFEOSZ-COOP), Hungary,⁴⁰ a Hungarian trade organisation,⁴¹ and member of the European region of the International Co-operative Alliance.⁴²

Komoróczki also became a member of the Hungarian delegation to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in 2015. In 2018, he became President of both the EESC’s EU-Georgia Domestic Advisory Group on sustainable development and trade in Georgia⁴³ and the EU-Georgia Civil Society platform, whose purpose is to coordinate and invite comment from civil societies from the both the EU and Georgia.⁴⁰⁴⁴ Though it is not a member of the EU, Georgia has had a special economic agreement permitting free trade between Georgia and the EU since 2016⁴⁵ and in 2019 demonstrated further interest in achieving full member status.⁴⁶

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Revolving Door
• Imperial Tobacco

References

The post István Komoróczki appeared first on TobaccoTactics.