Philip Morris International Inc. announced the appointment of Gregoire Verdeaux to the position of Senior Vice President External Affairs, effective September 1, 2020. In his new role, Verdeaux will report to the company’s CEO, André Calantzopoulos.
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.
“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 Calantzopoulos.
Prior to this role, Verdeaux served 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, 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.
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.
Verdeaux holds degrees from Universite D’Auvergne, University of Oklahoma and Sciences Po.
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