Gregoire Verdeaux

Gregoire Verdeaux was appointed Senior Vice President External Affairs at Philip Morris International (PMI) in September 2020. His appointment followed the retirement Marc S. Firestone as SVP External Affairs and General Counsel. Firestone was succeeded by Suzanne Rich Folsom as General Counsel.¹

Revolving Door

Verdeaux began his career in 1995 in the French civil service as an adviser to the French Minister for European Affairs, in the French Senate, and later cabinet adviser at the European Commission. He then became a manager at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2005.² UNDP is the lead UN development agency, and focusses on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).³

In 2007, Verdeaux was appointed Director of Strategy Finance at UNITAID, a partnership of the World Health Organisation (WHO).⁴ He then returned to French government, serving as the Deputy Head of Cabinet for the then-President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, from 2008 to 2011.²

After leaving civil service for a second time, Verdeaux transitioned to commercial industry. He worked as European Policy Director at Electricité De France (2011-2014) before joining Vodafone as Group International Policy Director (2014-2019).² Immediately prior to joining PMI, Verdeaux was a partner at Hering Schuppener, a European strategic communications consultancy.¹⁵

Relevant Links

• PMI Leadership Team

Tobacco Tactics Resources

• Philip Morris International