About
Jeffrey Wigand:
The 1990's marked an important
turning point in the United States for public health and the
aggressive business tactics of one of the country's most powerful
and pervasive industries: big tobacco. At the forefront of
these changes was Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, who exposed corporate
deceit and wrongdoing in spite of threats to his career and
the personal lives of those around him.
Wigand joined
the upper echelon of the tobacco industry in the late 1980's,
hoping to create a safer cigarette for smokers around the
world. Years later, he is emerging from his experience a hero
- not because he created a safer product, but because, along
the way, he just happened to become the highest-ranking executive
to go public with what he knew in the history of the tobacco
industry.
Throughout
his harrowing ordeal, however, Wigand was mostly vilified
a liar; the hero part has only come lately. To Vanity Fair
magazine, he was "The Man Who Knew Too Much." Disney,
whose movie about his travails was released in November 1999,
dubbed him "The Insider." His odyssey from tobacco
top-brass turncoat has made him the subject of documentaries
and the object of death threats. Wigand's revelations triggered
one of the most inglorious moments in the history of "60
Minutes," when CBS initially shelved an interview with
him, fearing a lawsuit from his former employer, Brown &
Williamson Tobacco Corporation.
Because of
his public disclosures about the industry's efforts to minimize
the health and safety issue of tobacco use, Wigand himself
was sued by Brown & Williamson, a Louisville-based organization
which is owned by BAT Industries, Plc, the world's second-largest
tobacco concern. The lawsuit was dismissed as a condition
of the June 20, 1997, historic settlement between the Attorneys
General of 40 States and the tobacco industry.
A native New
Yorker, Wigand earned academic degrees with distinction from
the University of Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical
Sciences, and more recently obtained a Masters Degree in Secondary
Education (MAT) from the University of Louisville. He taught
Japanese and science, including biology, chemistry and physical
sciences, at duPont Manual High School, a national school
of academic excellence, in Louisville, Kentucky, for three
years. He received national recognition for his teaching skills
when he was awarded the Sallie Mae "First Class Teacher
of the Year" Award in 1996. He was one of 51 teachers
recognized nationwide.
Out side of
the classroom, Wigand has held senior management positions
with a number of leading health care companies, including
Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, and served as Vice President
for Research and Development for Brown & Williamson Tobacco
Corporation from December 1988 to March 1993. After his separation
from Brown & Williamson, Wigand cooperated with governmental
agencies investigating the tobacco industry. Dr. Kessler,
the former Commissioner of the FDA, has acknowledged that
Wigand's assistance was central to the FDA's investigation
into the role and effect of nicotine in tobacco products.
Wigand has
received numerous awards and public recognition for his action
in revealing tobacco company research and marketing practices.
He continues his efforts to reduce teen tobacco use through
Smoke-Free Kids, Inc., a non-profit organization he formed.
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