Jeffrey Wigand

Jeffrey Wigand nació y creció en una familia católica romana en el Bronx y luego en Pleasant Valley, Nueva York. Después de un corto tiempo como militar (incluyendo una corta asignación a Vietnam) obtuvo un Máster y un PhD en "The State University of New York", en Buffalo. Conoció a su primera esposa, Linda, en 1970 mientras atendía a clases de judo. Al poco tiempo de su matrimonio, Linda desarrollo una esclerosis múltiple. Se divorciaron.
Antes de trabajar en "Brown and Williamson" Wigand trabajó en varias compañías relacionadas con la salud, incluyendo Pfizer y Johnson & Johnson. Además fue contratado como gerente general y director de marketing de Union Carbide en Japón y como vice presidente senior en Technicon …ver más…

In that long-standing, shadowy corporate world, nicotine was not addictive; cigarettes were not health-threatening; black was not white. I was living a lie.
As my longer, written testimony outlines, when the company’s top executives began deliberately editing the minutes of a scientific meeting, I had reached a personal crossroads and a moment of truth. I privately started investigating health issues relating to the use of tobacco products; the role of cigarette design in nicotine delivery; and the insidious marketing of tobacco to children. The more I learned, the more I had difficulty looking at myself in the mirror every morning. Nevertheless, despite my growing disillusionment, I was living handsomely, and initially I didn’t want to disrupt the comfortable lifestyle that I had built for my family.
Finally, however, a confrontation I had with a ranking B&W executive over the continuing use of Coumarin as an additive in pipe tobacco brought all my long-standing internal conflict to a head. I wrote an internal memo about the toxicological data concerning Coumarin, and the pressing need for the company to assume its moral responsibility by removing a dangerous chemical agent from its products. When the ranking executive with whom I’d clashed over this issue was promoted to Chief Executive Officer/Chairman of the company, I was summarily