LOOK WHO IS TALKING

• Kevin Altman. Kevin Altman is a technical consultant to the Council of Independent Tobacco Manufacturers of America (CITMA), a trade association that represents small tobacco manufacturers on legislative issues at the federal and state level. Altman is considered one of the leading U.S. experts on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation of tobacco and on the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreements. Prior to working with CITMA, he was an importer of tobacco products into the USA. Altman has worked on tobacco issues for 10 years.
• Dr. Patrick Basham. Founding director of the Democracy Institute, a politically independent think tank with offices in London and Washington, D.C. Previously, Basham served as a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, where he is currently an adjunct scholar. Prior to joining Cato, he served as founding director of the Social Affairs Center at the Fraser Institute, where he led the institute’s tobacco regulation research. Basham has taught tobacco regulation and health policy courses at Johns Hopkins University. He has also written and lectured extensively about regulation of the tobacco, food and gambling industries and is co-author of Diet Nation: Exposing the Obesity Crusade, published by London’s Social Affairs Unit. Basham’s latest book is Butt Out! How Philip Morris Burned Ted Kennedy, the FDA & the Anti-Tobacco Movement.
• Dr. Karen Blakeley. Blakeley is currently senior lecturer at the University of Winchester Business School. She has presented papers in Belgium, Stockholm and Frankfurt at the European Conference for Coaching and Mentoring regarding leadership and change. She has published articles in Coaching Today and People and Organisations regarding leadership learning and change. She recently presented a paper on Developing Ethical Leaders in High Performance Cultures at the European Business Ethics Network in London. Blakeley is also a director of Waverley Learning, an international change management and leadership development consultancy that runs leadership development initiatives for clients all over the world. Blakeley first graduated from Cambridge University and then gained a distinction in her master’s from the London School of Economics. Blakeley subsequently went on to study for a Ph.D. looking at the human side of change management.
• Erik Bloomquist. Erik Bloomquist covers Global Tobacco for Berenberg Bank, based in London. He previously led the Global Tobacco team at J.P. Morgan, which during his leadership was the only individual team to be top-ranked for Tobacco in the Europe, US and Japan Institutional Investor surveys, notably earning no. 2 in 2009 with Institutions and no. 1 with Hedge Funds in the 2009 All-Europe survey. Erik has covered Consumer stocks since 1999 in New York with PaineWebber/UBS Warburg. Erik holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an MA from the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington and is a CFA charter holder. Erik’s coverage includes British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Souza Cruz and Swedish Match which together account for over 70% of the Global Tobacco market capitalization.
• Menno Brakele. Sales manager, Madern International in the Netherlands. Brakele has been with Madern International in the Netherlands for 13 years managing sales of their high quality rotary tools such as cutting, punching, creasing and embossing for the packaging industry in general and, in particular, for tobacco and liquid packaging.
• Jeannie Cameron. Cameron is international advocacy and engagement manager for British American Tobacco, responsible for the BAT Group’s strategy on anti-illicit trade advocacy and engagement. This includes coordination of the group’s advocacy on the development of the World Health Organization’s FCTC Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco products and direct engagement with international government organizations such as the WTO, the WHO and the WCO. Cameron sits on BAT’s anti-illicit trade leadership team, global excise team, track and trace project board and digital tax stamp project board. Cameron joined BAT in 2001 as a specialist in public policy and international negotiations. She has degrees in political science, finance and law.
• Simon Clark. Director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest and founder of The Free Society. Born in London, he was educated at Madras College, St Andrews, and Aberdeen University. He returned to London for his first job - in public relations. In 1983 he launched a national student magazine called Campus; in 1984 he worked, briefly, for a Frankfurt-based human rights group; and from 1985-1990 he was director of the Media Monitoring Unit, a London-based research group founded by a former Labour minister, Lord Chalfont, and Dr Julian Lewis, who is now Conservative MP for New Forest West. As a freelance journalist, Simon edited a string of in-house magazines, the most recent of which was The Politico for Politico’s Bookshop in Westminster. Simon has been director of Forest since January 1999. He is Forest’s principal spokesman and appears regularly on radio and television defending the poor beleaguered smoker.
• Dr. Barrie Craven. Craven is an associate and graduate of the universities of Hull and Newcastle upon Tyne in England. He has taught at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, and California State University at San Luis Obispo. Craven has published articles in the Journal of Monetary Economics, the European Journal of Finance and The Manchester School. Together with Gordon Steward, a former advisor to the World Health Organization, Craven has written extensively about the economics of healthcare issues, publishing in World Economics and the Journal of Public Policy, among others. In this context, Craven has written on risk assessment in the areas of food scares and potential medical disasters. Over the past 15 years, much of his work has covered economic policies, politics and resource allocation related to HIV and AIDS. More recently, Craven collaborated with professor Mike Marlow in analyzing the economic consequences of public smoking bans in the United Kingdom and the United States.
• Chris Crawley. Chris is a managing member of Axiom Select LLC who specialize in consulting services, machinery and raw material supply in North America & Latin America. He is a recognized expert in instrumentation & measurement of physical cigarette, filter and material parameters, smoking methods and smoking machinery, cigarette filters and filtration, the global tobacco industry (particularly North & South America) and cost management. Chris was actively involved in Coresta, ISO TC126 and is well acquainted with the regulatory environment including FDA. Chris is also a founding partner/contributor to www.tobaccotoday.info
• Doug daCosta. Armed with degrees in criminal justice and business management, daCosta has more than 27 years of experience working for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) and associated agencies. As a program manager, he monitored contraband cigarette trafficking and profit laundering in Asia and the Middle East and was involved in the brokering of investigation policies with the major tobacco manufacturers in America. DaCosta has represented the ATF at Interpol and Europol, among other international law enforcement organizations. He culminated his U.S. Treasury/Department of Justice career with the successful coordination of federal resources to assist the International Olympic Committee on the Beijing Olympic torch relay. DaCosta is now a principle consultant with ESSI, a firm which is involved in safety, security and integrity across a wide range of areas including counterfeit goods investigations.
• Dr. Biswajit Deb. Deb is currently vice president of research and development at Godfrey Phillips India Limited. This position involves complete product development including blend design, cigarette design, flavor development and analytical facilities. Deb also represents GPI to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Deb earned his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry with an individual CSIR fellowship at the IIT. He then joined Bush Boake Allen as a research scientist, where he was involved in the synthesis of organoleptically active molecules. Before coming to GPI, Deb was a specialist scientist at ITC.
• Deepak Dewan. Deepak is the general manager of General Tobacco Co’s Asia Pacific region. His responsibilities range from overseeing product development, advertising and marketing to the sourcing and purchasing of goods and materials from around the globe. He is also responsible for customer relations and is knowledgeable about the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) to stop contraband tobacco. General Tobacco is the sixth largest tobacco company in the USA and is headquartered in North Carolina.
• Carlo Einarsson. Einarsson is the marketing communications director for Holmen AB’s cartonboard subsidiary Iggesund Paperboard. He joined Iggesund at its worldwide headquarters in Iggesund Sweden in 1989 and, after holding various positions, became president, Asia Pacific in 1995 to firmly establish the company in the region. This accomplished, Einarsson returned to Sweden in 2005 to become acting marketing communications director, which became a permanent position in 2006. Einarsson’s deep and wide experience in packaging, marketing, branding and communications strategies and his knowledge of sustainability matters make him a valuable participant in this year’s GTNF. Einarsson holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Stockholm University.
• Jason Falls. Falls is one of the leading educators and thinkers in the social media, public relations and communications industries. He has the unique perspective of having led a national advertising agency’s interactive and social media efforts, worked with Fortune 100 brands as a social media strategist and served as an independent consultant in the social media industry. He has advised major, regional and niche brands including Humana, Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark bourbons and Louisville Slugger. His work has resulted in acclaim and recognition in publication and honors, including a 2009 SAMMY Award for Best Integrated Social/Cross Media Campaign. One of the most in-demand speakers in the social media space, Falls has spoken internationally and nationally and is known for his engaging style, wit and humor, brutal honesty and for adding value to each audience’s experience. Falls’ blog can be found online at http://socialmediaexplorer.com, consistently rated at or near the top of the prestigious Advertising Age Power 150 Blogs.
• RP Gaikaiwari. Gaikaiwari has a master’s in technology from IIT, Kharagpur, and has been associated with the chewing tobacco industry for nearly two decades. His findings and research in the field have earned him accolades from national and international quarters. His contributions as a bio-technologist in the field of chewing tobacco have enabled the Indian industry to create breakthrough products. Apart from his association with the industry, Gaikaiwari has been closely associated with Tobacco Today as a technical commentator.
• Katherine Graham. Graham is campaign manager of the Tobacco Retailers Alliance in the U.K. She is from Gateshead, England, and read modern languages at Newcastle University and politics at Northumbria University. She worked as a journalist, an MP's researcher and a public affairs consultant before joining the Tobacco Retailers Alliance in 2007. Since that time, the TRA has launched a new campaign called Responsible Retailers, which is aimed at promoting responsibility in retailing tobacco, and increased its membership from 16,000 to 26,000 independent shopkeepers. The campaign is now in its 27th year. Graham leads the TRA’s ongoing campaign against tobacco smuggling and its campaign against a tobacco retail display ban.
• Dr. Karyn K. Heavner. MSPH PhD, is an epidemiologist specializing in behavioral research, particularly issues of misclassification related to harm reduction (tobacco and otherwise). She completed a MSPH at the University of South Carolina, a doctorate at the University at Albany, where she focused on HIV-related harm reduction and epidemiology methods, and a postdoc at the University of Alberta where her work included tobacco harm reduction and epidemiology methods. In addition to the works represented here, Dr. Heavner recently completed the most complete population-level analysis to date that demonstrates the success of THR in one European subpopulation. Dr. Heavner is the author of ‘Tobacco Harm Reduction 2010, a yearbook of recent research and analysis’.
• Mick Hume. Hume is the editor-at-large of the U.K.-based daily comment website Spiked (www.spiked-online.com) and a writer for The Times (London). He was the editor of the controversial magazine LM (which he originally launched in his 20s as Living Marxism magazine) until it was closed in 2000 following a notorious libel case. He launched Spiked in 2001and was the editor until 2007. As an ex-heavyweight champion smoker and libertarian Marxist, Hume is one of the few left-wing voices to oppose the fashion for smoking bans. He is a 50-year-old ex-Surrey grammar school boy with a Manchester United season ticket who lives in northeast London with his wife and two daughters.
• Cathie Keogh. Keogh, head of corporate affairs and legal for Imperial Tobacco Australia Limited (ITA), has more than 24 years of experience in the tobacco industry. Since joining the corporate affairs and legal team, Keogh has seen the introduction of display bans, multiple legislation changes and more recently the announcement by the Australian government to introduce plain packaging of tobacco products. In such a tightly regulated market, Keogh works closely with regulatory officials and industry stakeholders, including state and federal government departments and respective ministers. Keogh is also the media spokesperson for Imperial Tobacco in Australia. Prior to joining ITA, Keogh held various finance management positions for WD & HO Wills (now British American Tobacco) from 1986 to 1999. Keogh holds a Bachelor of Business (BBus) degree and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICA). Before joining the tobacco industry, Keogh worked as a chartered accountant in Australia, the U.S. and Canada.
• Jim Kirke. Kirke joined British American Tobacco in 1983 and spent his initial training periods in the U.K. and Zimbabwe. Following his role of introducing flue-cured and burley to Turkey, Kirke became leaf director in Sierra Leone. He then moved to Hong Kong to lead the establishment of BAT's leaf operations in China, subsequently becoming responsible for the leaf operations in Asia Pacific. Following his position as leaf director for Pakistan, Kirke became the leaf and demand chain director for Uzbekistan prior to his move to Globe House, London in 2008. Kirke is currently the group leaf sustainability manager.
• Udayan Lall. Lall worked in the tobacco industry for 37 years. He joined India’s largest cigarette manufacturer, ITC Ltd., in 1972 and spent 32 years in the organization’s sales and marketing division. Among other roles, Lall has held the position of executive vice president of trade marketing and distribution. In 2004, Lall became executive director of the Tobacco Institute of India, an organization that represents the cigarette segment of India’s tobacco industry.
• Dr. Iqbal Lambat. Lambat has more than 20 years of tobacco industry experience, holding senior management posts in strategic planning, business development, mergers and acquisitions. He has worked around the world for tobacco majors Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds International (now Japan Tobacco), Reemtsma Zigaretten and Imperial Tobacco. Lambat, as chief executive officer of Star Tobacco International, is currently engaged as a strategy advisor to companies in the leaf, cigar and cigarette sectors in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He is also working with several governments advising on tobacco privatization strategies. A Swiss national, Lambat holds a doctorate in international finance from Business School Lausanne and is an alumnus of IMD Lausanne, Switzerland.
• Sam Levy. Sam Levy is vice president of sales and marketing for Evans Mactavish, where he is also responsible for new products development. Born in Israel, Levy is a graduate of the Israeli Naval Academy. After serving 3.5 years in the Israeli armed forces, he immigrated to the United States in 1973. Between 1973 and 1980, Levy worked with the food industry. In 1980, he became partner in an automation/robotic machinery manufacturer. After five years, he left the partnership and continued on his own. Between 1985 and 1989, he started consulting to the tobacco industry, developing, designing and building new concept machinery for the tobacco industry. In 1989, Levy was retained fully by one of his customers, Mactavish Machine Manufacturing. He started as engineering manager, and was put in charge of sale as well shortly afterward. Later he became COO and, by 1993, he was company president. Levy left Mactavish after its sale in 1998. Between 1998 and 2004 he worked as a full-time consultant to Dickinson Leg UK, helping the company develop new products and establish a joint venture in India, among other projects. Levy left Dickinson Legg in 2004.
• Mark Littlewood. Littlewood was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he read philosophy, politics and economics, and City University Law School. Since 1995, Littlewood has worked in political communications, public relations and public affairs, variously for the European Movement, the Environment Agency and the London Bus Initiative. In 2001, he became campaigns director for the human rights group Liberty, leaving in 2004 to found NO2ID, the group that opposes identity cards and the database state, and become its first national co-ordinator. From December 2004 to May 2007, Littlewood was head of media for the Liberal Democrats. In 2007, Mark co-founded Progressive Vision, a classical liberal think tank and was its communications director until November 2009. Littlewood became the Institute of Economic Affairs’ fourth director general in December 2009. Littlewood’s interests include football (he is a season ticket holder at Southampton Football Club), cult British television of the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, forteana and Texas Hold ‘em poker.
• Dr. John Luik. Luik was educated on a Rhodes scholarship at the University of Oxford, where he obtained a doctorate. He is interested in public policy, particularly the use of science in policy and the question of government intervention to change risky behaviours. Luik has taught at several universities and worked as a consultant. He has written six books and dozens of articles on tobacco. Among other topics, his books cover the use of graphic health warnings, public policies designed to combat obesity and the issue of advertising and children.
• René Luyten. Luyten is one of the founders and owners of b-Cat BV. Over 15 years he has been an active fumigator in the Netherlands. Since 1994 when it was known that the Methylbromide would be phased out, he started to investigate alternative treatment technologies in post-harvest and storage facilities. In 1996 after the system was tested and approved by a Dutch Research Institute, the Controlled Atmosphere Technology (CAT) was ready to be brought to the commercial market. Under the name ZerOx, b-Cat delivers worldwide turnkey solutions based on the CA technology.
• Pradip Mittra. For the past 17 years, Pradip Mittra has been with cigarette manufacturing giant Godfrey Phillips India Ltd., where he is currently executive vice president operations. Previously, Mittra worked with Union Carbide in the areas of production, engineering and works management with a host of major companies in India. Mittra holds a B Tech in mechanical engineering from the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technologies, a postgraduate diploma in industrial management from the Jamnalai Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and he completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.
• K.K. Modi. Krishan Kumar Modi, the chairman of Modi Enterprises, will bring to his GTNF presentation a keen business acumen that, while encompassing tobacco, also reaches out into plant protection and specialty agro-chemicals, network marketing, retailing and even education, all of which are the basis of enterprises controlled by the K.K. Modi Family Trust. Modi is an inveterate innovator and, under his guidance, Godfrey Phillips India, the tobacco concern in which Philip Morris International holds a share and that is the largest of the businesses controlled by the Trust, is taking some of India's traditional tobacco products and manufacturing methods, breathing new life into them and coming up with export-quality smoking and smoke-free brands in modern, sometimes ground-breaking packagings. Modi is an engaging speaker and his keynote address is likely to be tinged with dry humor and colored with the perspective of a man whose Delhi office is a gallery of modern Indian art.
• Christopher Ogden. Ogden is the chief executive of the Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association (TMA) in the U.K. He joined the TMA in 1997 after several years as deputy director general of the Advertising Standards Authority and chairman of the European Advertising Standards Alliance. Since then, his responsibilities at the TMA have covered trade, scientific and regulatory issues affecting the U.K. tobacco market. On behalf of the manufacturers Ogden maintains links with government departments, other trade organizations, retailers and the media. He has led the TMA’s commitment to youth access prevention and has coordinated the companies’ support of the CitizenCard proof of age scheme and ‘No ID No Sale’ campaign.
• David O’Reilly. O’Reilly is British American Tobacco’s head of public health and scientific affairs. He has been with BAT since 1989 and has held various positions in the company’s research and development and corporate affairs departments. O’Reilly has overseen the company’s product development and risk characterization functions and most recently led BAT’s global harm reduction program with the aim of developing PREPs and a framework for PREP assessment. In corporate affairs, O’Reilly pioneered corporate social reporting for BAT, which became the first tobacco company to do so. He also led the company’s statement of business principles and framework for CSR.
• Adrian Osborn. Osborn studied tobacco culture and farmed in Zimbabwe for a number of years. He then joined Intabex in 1985 and spent the next 10 years running various operations in Canada, Tanzania and Burundi. He returned to Zimbabwe in 1995 to join the newly formed Leaf Company Tribac. Osborn subsequently moved to Associated Tobacco Company in 2001, where he became the sales and operations manager for ATC’s Indian operations. In March of this year Osborn became ATC’s director of sales and operations for Asia and Southeast Asia. In his new position, Osborn continues to play an active and important role in India, alongside his wider duties and responsibilities within the group’s regional activities.
• Mohan Padmanabhan. Padmanabhan is a senior editorial consultant for the Internet edition of Business Line in Chennai. Prior to that he was day chief of New Bureau, Business Line, Kolkata for 14 years before moving to Chennai in 2008 to work for the Net Edition of Business Line. Padmanabhan has spent nearly 35 years as a financial reporter, mainly handling corporate legal and foreign trade issues. He has also traveled extensively in the tobacco growing regions of Andhra Pradesh and Mysore and has interacted with both tobacco farmers and agri-scientists and researchers.
• Dr. Carl V. Phillips. Phillips is an independent researcher and consultant focusing on tobacco harm reduction and improving methods and epidemiology in the health sciences. He spent most of his career as a professor of public health, with a teaching focus of how to make optimal decisions based on evidence. His work draws upon his studies in economics, ethics, philosophy of science, political science and public health. Phillips' research institute produces the TobaccoHarmReduction.org website and related research and community education work. He works as a consultant and advisor for various organizations and companies involved with tobacco harm reduction and provides litigation support and consulting in epidemiology and health policy. Phillips is an award-winning researcher in epidemiology methods, focusing on making epidemiologic research more useful and honest by recognizing biased analysis methods and quantifying uncertainty. He received his Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University and completed fellowships in health policy at the University of Michigan and philosophy of science at the University of Minnesota.
• Ram Poddar. Ram Poddar joined Godfrey Phillips India in 1980 after extensive experience in the automotive and textile sectors. During his stint as CEO, Godfrey Phillips India became one of the top companies in the Indian tobacco industry. Poddar also played a key role in forging global alliances and importing various technologies. Now as the chief mentor of Modi Group of Companies, he is the guiding force for all group companies, including GPI. Poddar is also the chairman of the Tobacco Institute of India, the vice president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and the co-chairman of the Indirect Taxes Committee of PHD Chamber of Commerce. He is also a founder and trustee of Divine Care, a charitable social welfare organization.
• Tommy Rowland. Thomas J. Rowland has been with Universal Leaf Tobacco Co/ since 1980, serving in many capacities within the Universal Group. Tommy has previously filled the roles of vice president of Universal Leaf Tobacco Company Inc. and a similar position with Lancaster Leaf Tobacco Co. He has also been vice president of Universal Phillipines and is now senior vice president of Universal Leaf (Asia) based in Singapore. Mr. Rowland is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
• Christopher Russell. Having completed his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Psychology, Russell is now pursuing his Doctorate. His focus is on addiction theory: interpretations of scientific evidence supporting addiction as a disease and as a motivated choice; governing and motivating factors in addiction; issues regarding responsibility for behaviour; legal, clinical and public policy issues regarding public education on the nature of addiction and effectiveness of addiction treatment; relative efficacies of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and experiential avoidance-based psychotherapies to produce smoking cessation. He has authored and co-authored a number of papers on addiction.
• Uwe Schey. Uwe is the chief operating officer of Xavo AG, a business process consulting and IT company based in Germany and Switzerland. With his 15 years experience in the tobacco industry his job is to help (tobacco) companies to develop and enhance the right supply chain business processes. Additionally Uwe helps companies to find the right IT systems (sometimes developed at Xavo) to support these business processes for the most benefit of the customer. Uwe worked more than 6 years for BAT in Engineering and IT and joined Xavo as a board member in 2003.
• P. T. Sreekumar. Managing director (Filter Products). PT Sreekumar joined Filtrona from Godfrey Philips,
  an Indian tobacco company, in 1995. Sreekumar was initially responsible for the Indian joint venture within Filtrona. In 2002 he was appointed as Regional Director for Asia Pacific responsible for the business in Asia and the Middle East before moving into his current role early in 2005.
• Dr. Jan Snel. Snel is a psychophysiologist at the Department of Psychology of the University of Amsterdam. His main interests are the effects of socially accepted psychoactive substances such as nicotine, caffeine and alcohol on brain activity, mood, cognition and performance. Snel’s most recent book, Permission to Enjoy, examines the role of pleasure in these effects.
• Chris Snowdon. Snowdon is an independent author and historian whose works include Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking (2009). He has a degree in history from the University of Lancaster in the U.K. and is an adjunct scholar at the Democracy Institute. He has written about a wide range of issues relating to liberty and public health for Spiked, Environment & Climate News, Pipes and Tobaccos and the Free Society. His most recent book is The Spirit Level Delusion (May 2010).
• Jeff Stier. Stier is the associate director of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). He is responsible for external affairs, including media and government relations, policy, legal affairs and development. ACSH is a nonprofit, public health, consumer advocacy organization dedicated to promoting sound science in public health. Since joining ACSH in 1997, Stier has represented ACSH on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, the Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC and CNBC, as well as dozens of talk radio shows, and in the Associated Press, Reuters, United Press International, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Newsweek, the New York Post, The Washington Times, the New York Daily News and other major publications. Before moving to New York, Stier worked for the Jewish Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where he focused on domestic policy issues. Stier also worked both in the office of the mayor and in corporation counsel's office in the Giuliani administration in New York City. His responsibilities included planning environmental agency programs, legal analysis of proposed legislation, and health policy.
• Bharat Thakkar. Thakkar is a founding member of All Indian Pan Masala & Tobacco Manufacturers Association and the first to start a publication on the Indian Tobacco Industry, more than a decade back. As owner/editor of the magazine Tobacco Today, Thakkar has been instrumental in consolidating the Indian chewing tobacco industry. Often donning the mantle of a negotiator, communicator and information leader in a global tobacco platform, the entire Indian chewing tobacco industry considers him a repository of working knowledge.
• Ron Tully. Tully is vice president of new projects and initiatives at U.S.-based National Tobacco Company. Tully also has responsibility for new product evaluations as well as being head of National Tobacco’s public affairs and legislative programs at the federal and state levels. Recently, Tully worked on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration legislation on tobacco—the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act—as well as numerous state tobacco bills related to the Master Settlement Agreement, taxation, flavor bans and retail prohibitions. Prior to Joining National Tobacco, Tully was vice president of public affairs at Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., and before that he was general manager of the International Tobacco Documentation Centre in London. Tully has been in the tobacco industry for 22 years.
• Harrie van de Ven. Van de Ven is the founder, director and co-owner of Ensa Machine Bouw b.v., which specializes in cigar machinery. Within 14 years of founding it, he has brought his company from "one man" status to market leader in cigar producing machinery, with almost all major European and American cigar manufacturers as customers. Van de Ven has worked for 50 years in the cigar industry and is an expert in cigar-related machinery. He was instrumental in making many improvements on cigar-making machinery and was a driving force at his former employer, turning this expertise into commercial success. After 36 years he started his own company and became a supplier without being a competitor to his customers, which is also at the base of his success. With his drive and insight and assisted by an excellent team of employees, he built his company to its current state. He also helped start factories in Malta and later Sri Lanka and the Dominican Republic.
• Martijn van de Ven. Van de Ven is the son and successor of Harrie van de Ven and co-owner of Ensa Machine Bouw b.v. Van de Ven has now seven years of experience in the industry and has worked his way up within the company to his current position of general director. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics and is finishing his technical bachelor’s degree. In his previous job he worked as a senior consultant and was responsible for acquisitions, sales and customer relations within his branch office. Together with a national sales organization, he closed orders with some big international companies.
• Alexander Vassiliev. Chairman of the board of directors of the EDAPS Consortium. A graduate of Universities of Oxford and Geneva, Mr. Vassiliev has held Senior Executive positions in the field of security systems and solutions implementing turn-key Passport, Driving Licences and Vehicle Registration projects, endorsed by the EU, US, ICAO and OSCE. Appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors of EDAPS Consortium in 2004, Mr. Vassiliev has been involved in the management and implementation of more than 300 turnkey Government solutions. Under his guidance EDAPS Consortium has become one of the world’s leading players in the field of secure holograms, smart cards, passports and other kinds of documents printed on paper and plastic with all production facilities and infrastructure to deliver the most modern and secure government turnkey solutions.
• Nicolaas Vroom. Vroom is senior sales manager and research and development manager at EcO2 B.V. and a consultant at JNF Consulting Services B.V. Vroom’s principal expertise lies in the development, research and implementation of all kinds of treatments in pest control. He also has extensive knowledge of entomology, particularly those species found in post-harvest products and storage facilities. In the last decade, Vroom has specialized in pest control during the post-harvest storage of tobacco and is very familiar with the current issues of resistance and residues. Vroom is a member of the Coresta sub-group on pest and sanitation management in stored tobacco.
• Sebastian Zimmel. After studying law, Zimmel began in 1975 as assistant to a future director general of Austria Tabak, his responsibilities including exports, marketing and work in the secretariat general. At the same time, from 1984 on he coordinated all of Austria Tabak’s cigar activities. In 1995 he founded his own company, Cigar & Co., which from 1999 to 2010 also had a state licence to import cigars, cigarillos and other tobacco products directly into Austria. Cigar & Co now concentrates on consulting and marketing. Alongside these activities, he works as a journalist for various tobacco journals, including Tobacco Reporter. For the European Cigar Journal, he writes a regular column under the heading "Cigar Doctor" and passes on his 35 years of experience in the world of tobacco to his readers.