Altria issued the following announcement on April 17.
- Altria’s Chairman and CEO, Howard Willard, retires from Altria.
- Altria’s Board elects Billy Gifford to serve as CEO.
- Altria’s Board separates the Chairman and CEO roles and names Thomas Farrell independent Chairman.
Following Mr. Willard’s retirement, Altria’s Board of Directors (Board) elected Billy Gifford to serve as Altria’s CEO. Mr. Gifford has served in numerous senior leadership roles during his more than 25-year career at Altria, including most recently Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer where he was responsible for Altria’s financial functions as well as its core tobacco businesses, sales and distribution business, and Consumer & Marketplace Insights team. Previously he served as Altria’s Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development and President and CEO of Philip Morris USA. Mr. Gifford currently serves as a director at Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV as one of Altria’s designees.
Altria also announced the Board’s decision to separate the roles of Chairman and CEO. The Board elected Thomas Farrell, formerly the Board’s independent Presiding Director, as independent Chairman of the Board, effective April 16, 2020.
“The Board thanks Howard for his nearly 30 years of distinguished service to Altria and for helping to set the course for Altria’s 10-year vision to responsibly lead the transition of adult smokers to a non-combustible future,” said Mr. Farrell. “Our election of Billy as the next CEO reflects the Board’s belief that his collaborative leadership style, strategic mindset and deep financial and industry expertise are right to lead Altria towards that future.”
“We believe we’re well positioned to make significant progress against our vision,” said Mr. Gifford. “I’m excited to work with our strong leadership team, fantastic employees and key stakeholders to lead Altria forward in its pursuit of the 10-year vision.”
With Mr. Gifford’s new position, the Board also elected Salvatore Mancuso Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Over the course of his more than 29 years with Altria, Mr. Mancuso has held a variety of leadership roles across the Finance, Compliance and Strategy & Business Development organizations. In his most recent role as Senior Vice President, Finance and Procurement, Mr. Mancuso oversaw Altria’s Treasury, Tax, Audit, Financial Planning & Analysis, and Controller functions while also overseeing the Procurement and Information Services teams, among others.
“Sal is a well-respected leader across our Finance organization and the Altria family of companies. I look forward to continuing to work closely with him in his new role as our CFO,” said Mr. Gifford.
Altria’s Profile
Altria’s wholly owned subsidiaries include Philip Morris USA Inc. (PM USA), U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company LLC (USSTC), John Middleton Co. (Middleton), Sherman Group Holdings, LLC and its subsidiaries (Nat Sherman), Ste. Michelle Wine Estates Ltd. (Ste. Michelle) and Philip Morris Capital Corporation (PMCC). Altria owns an 80% interest in Helix Innovations LLC (Helix). Altria holds equity investments in Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (ABI), JUUL Labs, Inc. (JUUL) and Cronos Group Inc. (Cronos).
Original source can be found here.
