NY-PHILIP-MORRIS-INTL
24.8.2020 14:00:06 CEST | Business Wire | Press release
Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) (NYSE: PM) is pleased to announce the appointment of Gregoire Verdeaux to the position of Senior Vice President External Affairs effective September 1, 2020. In his new role, Mr. Verdeaux will report to the company’s CEO, André Calantzopoulos.
“Gregoire’s range of experiences—from working for national and E.U. parliaments and governments, the U.N., WHO, as well as private companies undergoing significant transformation—has given him a unique understanding of how political decisions are made. This makes him an ideal candidate to join us at PMI and help adapt the regulatory environment applicable to reduced risk products, as we continue our transformation to a smoke-free company,” said Mr. Calantzopoulos.
Mr. Verdeaux joins PMI from Hering Schuppener, where he was a partner. Prior to that, he served as group international policy director at Vodafone. At Vodafone, he built a team from the ground up focused on enabling the business with integrated regulatory strategies, such as ensuring license to operate in sensitive emerging markets in Africa and Asia. He directly engaged with high-level decision-makers in E.U. institutions and oversaw the coordination of policy, lobbying, antitrust, compliance, and other activities while supporting 12 national markets. He also worked to obtain fair competition in the broadband market between private investors and traditional incumbent competitors at the E.U. level.
Prior to Vodafone, Mr. Verdeaux served as European policy director at Electricité De France (EDF), where he proposed and designed group positions for key negotiations with the E.U. regarding competition, state aid cases, and top energy policy issues, especially nuclear energy.
Mr. Verdeaux’s highly relevant experience also includes a wealth of expertise in the public and NGO sectors. He served at the local level as deputy head of the cabinet of the French President, as administrator to the French senate and cabinet adviser to the minister of Foreign Affairs and to the European Commission. Additionally, he held the positions of director, strategy and finance, Unitaid, for the World Health Organization and manager in the United Nations Development Program.
Mr. Verdeaux holds degrees from Universite D’Auvergne, University of Oklahoma and Sciences Po.
This appointment follows the previous announcement of long-serving executive Marc Firestone’s intention to retire from the dual roles of President, External Affairs and General Counsel, and the appointment of Suzanne Rich Folsom as Senior Vice President and General Counsel.
Philip Morris International: Delivering a Smoke-Free Future
Reduced risk products (RRPs) is the term PMI uses to refer to products that present, are likely to present, or have the potential to present less risk of harm to smokers who switch to these products versus continuing smoking. PMI has a range of RRPs in various stages of development, scientific assessment, and commercialization. PMI’s RRPs are smoke-free products that produce an aerosol that contains far lower quantities of harmful and potentially harmful constituents than found in cigarette smoke.
Philip Morris International (PMI) is leading a transformation in the tobacco industry to create a smoke-free future and ultimately replace cigarettes with smoke-free products to the benefit of adults who would otherwise continue to smoke, society, the company, and its shareholders. PMI is a leading international tobacco company engaged in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes, as well as smoke-free products and associated electronic devices and accessories, and other nicotine-containing products in markets outside the United States. In addition, PMI ships a version of its IQOS Platform 1 device and its consumables authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to Altria Group, Inc. for sale in the U.S. under license. PMI is building a future on a new category of smoke-free products that, while not risk-free, are a much better choice than continuing to smoke. Through multidisciplinary capabilities in product development, state-of-the-art facilities and scientific substantiation, PMI aims to ensure that its smoke-free products meet adult consumer preferences and rigorous regulatory requirements. PMI’s smoke-free IQOS product portfolio includes heat-not-burn and nicotine-containing vapor products. As of June 30, 2020, PMI estimates that approximately 11.2 million adult smokers around the world have already stopped smoking and switched to PMI’s heat-not-burn product, available for sale in 57 markets in key cities or nationwide under the IQOS brand. For more information, please visit www.pmi.com and www.pmiscience.com .
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200824005301/en/
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Johns Manville Announces John Vasuta as New CEO19.5.2026 22:30:00 CEST | Press release
Johns Manville (JM), a global building and specialty products manufacturer and a Berkshire Hathaway company, announced today that Bob Wamboldt will retire and John Vasuta will assume the role of President and Chief Executive Officer, effective August 1, 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260519630814/en/ John Vasuta will become JM's CEO and President on August 1, 2026. Vasuta joined Johns Manville in 2019 as President of the company’s Engineered Products business. He also serves on the Board of Directors for EJ, a global leader and private manufacturer of infrastructure access products for water, sewer, utilities, drainage and telecommunications. “It’s an extraordinary privilege to step into the role of CEO,” Vasuta said. “I’m deeply honored to continue serving our customers and supporting the employees whose dedication makes our success possible.” Before joining JM, John held leadership roles at Bridgeston
Mereo Insurance Announces Move into Excess Casualty Insurance19.5.2026 22:12:00 CEST | Press release
Mereo expands into Excess Casualty Insurance by acquiring renewal rights to Everen Specialty Ltd.’s Excess Casualty Energy portfolio. Mereo Insurance Limited (“Mereo”) today announced a renewal rights transaction with Everen Specialty Ltd. (“ESL”), a member of the Everen Group, for ESL’s Excess Casualty Energy portfolio. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260519154915/en/ David Croom-Johnson, President & Chief Executive Officer of Mereo Insurance Limited Under the transaction, Mereo will become the insurance carrier on a go-forward basis for both new and renewed business effective June 1, 2026. ESL’s underwriting team and underwriting systems supporting the Excess Casualty Energy portfolio will also transition to Mereo, led by former ESL Chief Underwriting Officer, Carla Greaves. Under the terms of the agreement, Mereo will provide ESL insureds with continuity of coverage, access to AM Best “A- rated” paper, and
Grid Dynamics Launches AI-Native Modernization on Azure, Targeting Larger Enterprise Deals19.5.2026 22:05:00 CEST | Press release
Key Takeaways: New offerings target modernization of large enterprises running mission-critical, high-transaction-volume legacy environments. As a Microsoft Azure specialized partner with five advanced specializations, including Infra & Database Migration, Grid Dynamics’ clients will receive free deployment support through the Azure Accelerate program. Built on the GAIN (Grid Dynamics AI-Native) Platform for SDLC, which has delivered 30%+ productivity gains in our benchmarks. Grid Dynamics extends its AI delivery model to Azure, drawing on extensive expertise in application migration for Fortune 1000 companies. In the first quarter of 2026, AI represented 29% of the company’s revenue. This was up from 25% in 2025 and was driven by deployments across industry verticals, including Technology, Financial Services, CPG, and Manufacturing. Grid Dynamics Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GDYN) (“Grid Dynamics”), a premier AI transformation partner for the Fortune 1000, today announced an AI-native mode
Vultr Expands European Footprint with 33rd Cloud Data Center Region in Milan, Italy19.5.2026 17:28:00 CEST | Press release
New region strengthens Vultr's commitment to affordable, high-performance cloud infrastructure and Europe's thriving open source and AI ecosystem Vultr, the world’s largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company, today announces the launch of its 33rd global cloud data center region in Milan, coinciding with AI Week 2026 at Fiera Milano Rho, where over 700 international speakers will gather for Europe's largest AI event. Vultr is a platinum sponsor and is also co-hosting the AI Agent Olympics Hackathon with over 1,000 participants. Milan becomes Vultr's ninth European cloud data center region, joining Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Manchester, Paris, Stockholm, and Warsaw. This launch represents the company's latest expansion of a global network reaching 90% of the world's population within 2–40 milliseconds. Vultr’s cloud data center location will be delivering Vultr’s full-stack AI infrastructure, including Vultr’s flagship cloud compute offering, VX1, in addition to Vult
Global Millennial Capital Closes USD 100 Million IPO Opportunities Fund Focused on AI, Decentralized Financial Infrastructure, and Climate Technologies19.5.2026 17:16:00 CEST | Press release
Global Millennial Capital Ltd. (“GMCL”) today announced the final closing of its inaugural IPO Opportunities Fund at USD 100 million. Raised through a private placement with institutional and professional investors, the fund targets late-stage and special opportunities investments across mid-cap technology companies operating in high-growth sectors, including artificial intelligence, decentralized finance infrastructure, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, enterprise software, and climate technologies. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260519513523/en/ Global Millennial Capital announces the successful final close of its USD 100 million IPO Opportunities Fund, reinforcing its commitment to investing in high-growth technology companies across artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, and next-generation financial systems. The fund is designed to capitalize on the increasing number of tech
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom
