New Approaches
2023

Thomas John Miller is an American lawyer and politician who served as Attorney General of Iowa, respectively from 1979 to 1991 and from 1995 to 2023. Miller's combined tenure of over 40 years in office makes him the longest-serving State Attorney General in United States history.  As Attorney General, Miller was instrumental in leading to the creation of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). The MSA’s purpose is to reduce smoking in the U.S., especially in youth. In 1998, 52 state and territory attorneys general signed the agreement to recover billions of dollars in health care costs associated with treating smoking-related illnesses.  Miller chaired The Legacy Foundation, which was created by the MSA and became the Truth Initiative in 2015. He has been a continuous advocate of harm reduction throughout his tenure taking a proactive approach with the FDA as a regulator of global importance. His opinion can be read in the Washington Post: Let’s not overreact about e-cigarettes. Miller holds a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.

Peter J. Pitts is the president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and a visiting professor at Université Paris Descartes Medical School. Pitts was the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Associate Commissioner for external relations, serving as senior communications and policy adviser to the Commissioner. He supervised the FDA’s Office of Public Affairs, Office of the Ombudsman, Office of Special Health Issues, Office of Executive Secretariat, and Advisory Committee Oversight and Management. He served on the agency’s obesity working group and counterfeit drug task force and as a special government employee (SGE) consultant to the FDA’s Risk Communications Advisory Committee. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs and Butler University. Pitts lives in New York City.

Bonnie Herzog is a managing director and senior consumer analyst at Goldman Sachs covering the beverage, tobacco and convenience store sectors. During her 20 plus years of experience as a sell-side equity research analyst, Bonnie has been a top-ranked Institutional Investor analyst. For more than ten years, Bonnie has been recognized by Institutional Investor magazine for the All-America Research Team.  Prior to Joining Goldman Sachs in December 2019, Bonnie was a managing director atWells Fargo and Citi Investment Research. Bonnie is best known for her in-depth proprietary research and successful contrarian stocks calls. She has been a guest speaker at numerous tobacco, beverage and convenience store industry conferences. Bonnie earned anMBA degree in finance from the Sloan School of Management at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology and a BA degree in finance from the University of St.Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Jeannie Cameron is an expert on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control FCTC, including attending its negotiation in Geneva and the development of its subsequent Protocol on Illicit Trade. As part of an LLM in 2007, Jeannie earned a distinction from King’s College University of London for a dissertation on the topic of Emerging International Public Health Issues – Human Rights, Harm Reduction, and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Jeannie has been a parliamentary advisor, chief of staff as well as a civil servant in the International Legal Section of the Australian Cabinet participating in international forums including the Copenhagen World Summit for Social Development and the Beijing UN Platform for Action on Discrimination Against Women. She has consulted for the OECD and served as Co-Chair of the OECD’s Charting Illicit Trade Taskforce on Environmentally Sensitive Goods and Wildlife. Jeannie is CEO of JCIC International, a UK based strategic advocacy consultancy founded in 2011 focused on strategic advocacy. Jeannie has consulted for PMI on various global initiatives and formerly headed BAT’s International Political and Regulatory Affairs area. Jeannie took an 18-month break from consulting in January 2020 to work as Vice President, International at Juul Labs. Jeannie is an active commentator on tobacco harm reduction, public administration and governance reform.

Dr. Letlape is an ophthalmologist from South Africa, is a former president of the Health Professions Council and chairman of the Medical and Dental Board of South Africa. He is the current president of the Africa Medical Association and president of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa. He is also past chairman of the board of the South African Medical Association (SAMA) and past president of the World Medical Association (WMA), the global representative body for physicians. He was admitted as a fellow of the College of Surgeons of South Africa in April 1988 and as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for ophthalmology in May 1988. He has the distinction of being the first black African to qualify as an ophthalmologist in Southfield, South Africa, and the first to become president of the WMA.

‍Aniket Shah is Managing Director and Global Head of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Sustainable Finance Strategy at Jefferies Group LLC. In this role, Aniket leads the integration of ESG and sustainability analysis within the global investment research department and engages with clients on this dynamic area of corporate and financial services. Aniket was ranked #1 in the US Institutional Investor Survey for ESG Research and #3 in Europe. Prior to Jefferies, Aniket held senior roles in emerging market investing and financing sustainable development in both the public and private sectors, including at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Oppenheimer Funds and UBS Group AG. Aniket serves on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International and the UN SDSN. He is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Aniket is a member of the Economic Club of New York and the Bretton Woods Committee and is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Oxford, where he completed his PhD on the financing of sustainable development.

Martin Cullip is a former company director and International Fellow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Consumer Center, who has written and blogged on free market and lifestyle consumer issues for over a decade. As a user of e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products, he is a particularly passionate consumer advocate for all forms of tobacco harm reduction and has a keen interest in the rapidly evolving nicotine market and the politics surrounding it. Martin is a former Chair of UK education charity, The New Nicotine Alliance, and has taken part in parliamentary evidence sessions and consumer, industry, and political events on the subject domestically and internationally.

Patricia I. Kovacevic is a global legal and compliance nicotine and cannabis industry expert. She currently serves as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Head of External Affairs at Cryomass Technologies Inc, and advises clients through her own consulting group, RegulationStrategy. Ms. Kovacevic has over twenty years of experience in the highly regulated nicotine, cannabis and cannabidiol industries. Her career includes leading senior legal and regulatory positions at Philip Morris International and Lorillard, among others. While at Lorillard, in 2012 she was closely involved with the acquisition of blu, at the time the leading vaping company, which was also the first-ever acquisition by a tobacco company of a vaping company. Her team also obtained the first-ever premarket authorization for a new tobacco product issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Tobacco Control Act. At Nicopure Labs as general counsel she spearheaded the litigation challenging the FDA’s so-called “deeming rule.” Prior to joining Lorillard, Ms. Kovacevic was a partner at Patton Boggs. Her focus includes M&A in highly regulated industries, such as e-cigarette and tobacco, all aspects of nicotine and cannabis regulation in the US and abroad, SOX compliance and all regulatory aspects of marketing/media communications, corporate affairs, criminal investigations, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, trade sanctions, privacy, and product development and launch. Ms. Kovacevic served on the board of directors of the Vapor Technology Association and on the advisory board of the Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum. She authored several articles on nicotine regulation and is often invited as a keynote speaker. and presenter before global conferences. and government agencies. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School. and is admitted to practice in New York, before the United States Tax Court, the United States Court of International Trade and the Supreme Court of the United States of America. She speaks fluently seven languages.

Ian Fearon is the Chief Scientific Officer at McKinney Regulatory Science Advisors, LLC, Director of whatIF? Consulting Ltd, and a Scientific Advisory Board member with Qnovia, LLC.  Ian specializes in the scientific and regulatory aspects of tobacco and nicotine products. His expertise covers clinical and behavioral studies of these products, particularly in relation to regulatory submissions in the US and Europe. With a wealth of experience in both consumer goods and medicinal licensing submissions, Ian has spent over 15 years working in the Tobacco Harm Reduction field. Ian has held senior positions such as Senior Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs EMEA at JUUL Labs, Director of Tobacco Research at Celerion, and Principal Scientist and Head of Clinical Research at British American Tobacco.

Shem has occupied senior positions in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Commonwealth and Philip Morris International. He has executed public affairs strategies and served as a strategic partner to leadership in the U.K., Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and Australia. His advisory firm, Nexum Consulting, supports clients across the spectrum of climate financing for adaptation, communications, government relations, stakeholder engagement, and regulation mitigation.

Samuel C. Hampsher-Monk is the Managing Director of BOTEC Analysis; a U.S.-based policy research and consulting firm specializing in tobacco control, drug policy, and cannabis legalization.  Under Sam’s leadership, BOTEC has developed a specialization in Tobacco Harm Reduction and has been a grantee with PMI Impact and, since 2019, the Foundation for a Smoke-free World where they continue to research the role of alternative nicotine delivery systems in smoking cessation and the unintended consequences of tobacco control regulations. Sam is the lead author of the forthcoming (2023) book, Clearing the Air on E-cigarettes and Harm Reduction: Tobacco Control, Economics and Public Health. He was educated in the UK and lives in California with his wife and two children.

Dr. Nides is the President of LA Clinical Trials LLC, specializing in clinical research and development of products and medications to help smokers quit using combustible tobacco.  Dr. Nides has been the principal investigator of over 60 smoking cessation trials testing nicotine and non-nicotine products including patch, gum, lozenge, Inhaler, mouthspray, bupropion, varenicline and cytisinicline (cytisine).  

Since 2013,  Dr. Nides has conducted over 30 clinical trials of ENDS, and oral tobacco/nicotine products to determine blood nicotine levels, abuse liability, biomarkers of exposure and potential harm, puff topography, consumer perceptions and preferences, and their effectiveness as a tool to reduce or quit using combustible tobacco. The majority of these studies have been included as part of PMTA applications for manufacturers.

From 2004-2022, Dr. Nides was the co-founder and Director of "Picture Quitting," the Entertainment Industry’s Quit Smoking Program that provided state-of-the-art smoking cessation services to over 7,000 studio employees, actors, writers, directors and “behind the scenes” workers. The 6-month quit smoking success rate was 52%.  

From 1987 to 1999 Dr. Nides was a smoking cessation researcher in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Dept. of the UCLA School of Medicine.

Over the years, Dr. Nides has trained thousands of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other health care professionals on ways to help their smokers quit using combustible tobacco.

David Lawson is the Founder of Inter Scientific and Ventus Medical and serves as scientific advisor to several firms. David is a Fellow of The Organisation for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs, a non-clinical expert for pharmaceuticals and lectures on the Master of Science Course on inhalation medicines. David is a biochemist by background and holds a BSc Biochemistry, LLB in Laws, an MBA and is currently completing a master's in science in Regulatory Affairs and a further master's in science in Medical Toxicology. David has over 15 years experience in the innovation, research, development, and regulation of nicotine-containing products from oral nicotine, through to vape and active nicotine patches. David was responsible for the development and licensing of the first medical electronic cigarette and has designed and conducted several pharmacokinetic studies to support regulatory submissions. David actively participates in the research of nicotine-containing products from a chemical, safety, and policy perspective. David is the technical author of a UK standard for CBD vape and has contributed to the formation of European and British standards over the past 7 years.

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Christopher Russell, Ph.D. is a psychologist and Director of Russell Burnett Research and Consultancy Ltd (RBRC), Glasgow, United Kingdom. In his role, Dr. Russell leads the design, conduct, and reporting of perception and behavioral research studies of reduced-risk tobacco and nicotine products, including e-cigarettes/vaping products, heated tobacco products, and modern oral tobacco products. Premarket and post-market studies are designed to yield a range of cross-sectional, experimental, and real-world observational data and information, including but not limited to: (i) the likelihood that tobacco users and non-users will initiate and adopt use of a new product in addition to, in place of, or instead of other, potentially more harmful tobacco/nicotine products; (ii) how adult consumers actually use a new product in their everyday lives in real-world settings; (iii) how cigarette smoking behavior changes following adoption of a new product (e.g., product switching, dual use, use reduction, cessation); (iv) behavioral intentions, appeal, risk perceptions, and subjective effects of a new product; and(v) consumer understanding of product labels, labelling, and marketing materials. These sources of evidence can inform regulatory evaluations of the potential impact of marketing a new tobacco/nicotine product on future tobacco use behavior and population health.

Kylie Halperin is a co-founder and serves as Chief Executive Officer at SKYX Group Inc. Kylie co-founded SKYX Group after spending over a decade with world-renowned advertising and marketing firms, BBDO and Young & Rubicam, working across new business development and fortune 500 companies with a focus on CPG brands such as PepsiCo, Dell, and Revlon. In her role at SKYX Group, she focuses on establishing key wholesale relationships with major retailers and defines subsidiary company strategic brand positioning.

Owen Bennett is a senior vice president at Jefferies, covering the global tobacco and cannabis sector. He began his career in audit at Deloitte in London where he obtained his ACA. He then moved on to work for BDO in New York prior to becoming a financial analyst with a role in strategy for P&G at their Geneva headquarters. In 2010, Bennett shifted to equity research, where he has covered the tobacco space to present day and picked up cannabis coverage in 2019. He is top ranked in Institutional Investor for tobacco, including #2 the past two years, and has the most extensive cannabis coverage of any analyst, covering all Canadian, US, and cannabis ancillary. He is regularly featured in the financial press, with appearances on CNBC and Bloomberg. He has a BA in Business Studies from Sheffield and an MA in Globalization of Business from Sheffield Hallam University. He is also a CFA charter holder.

Dave Simpson is the Director of Venta Services, an innovative service-user led organisation that provides a safe alternative to smoking cessation within a variety of health and social care environments, including secure services. Established in 2019, Venta Services identified a need for a safe and cost-effective alternative to smoking cessation within health and social care, including secure/medium secure services. The offering has been coproduced with professionals within the health and social care sector, including professionals with a secure environment background. We firmly believe that people with lived experience are best placed to both shape and drive forward the Venta Services vision.

Dr. Amy Madl is President and Senior Principal HealthScientist at Valeo Sciences, a scientific consulting firm which provides integrative, multi-disciplinary, and fit-for-purpose scientific solutions to complex issues related to human health. Dr. Madl is a board-certified toxicologist with specialty in inhalation toxicology and 25 years of experiencein the sampling and analysis, toxicology, exposure, and risk assessment ofairborne chemicals. Dr. Madl also holds a research position with the University of California, Davis, where her research interests have focused on the toxicological effects of inhaled nanoparticles and ENDS products. Dr. Madl has led interdisciplinary research programs with the mission to integrate material physicochemistry, toxicology and hazard evaluation, and exposure science to characterize human health risk and public health impacts. Dr. Madl’s academic and consulting research of ENDS products has involved characterization of liquid/aerosol physicochemistry, toxicology, consumer exposures, pharmacokinetic and topography studies, and human health risk assessments. Dr. Madl has published over 95 abstracts, book chapters, and peer-reviewed papers on various exposure, toxicology, and risk-related topics, including issues involving chemical exposures in occupational, environmental, medical device, and consumer product scenarios.

Chad Owen is the President of Chambers and Owen Inc., a top regional full-service convenience store distributor. Owen is the fifth generation to head the business and worked his way up from a young age in the warehouse, to the merchandising crew, and in the sales department. Chad was a member of the Convenience Distribution Association Executive Committee in 2013, serving as they youngest chairman in 2016, where he helped map the direction of the association during its reorganization and reinvention from the AWMA. He is an active member of the board of directors, advisory council, events planning committee, CBD/cannabis task force and the industry affairs committee.

Martin Steinbauer is the Chief Engineer and co-founder of SMOOD, where he focuses on youth access restriction technologies and sustainability solutions for ENDS. SMOOD has grown into a global business built on sustainability, advanced chemistry, IoT-enabled devices, and consumer centricity. Prior to SMOOD, Martin was an investment analyst at BlackRock in New York City. Martin graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Applied Mathematics.

Steve Sandman is a product distribution veteran, holding almost 40 years of experience commercializing products in convenience stores. He has experience with prominent distribution companies like Colonial Wholesale, Richmond Master Wholesale, and HLA, and has worked extensively with convenience stores, and tobacco outlet retailers across the USA. Sandman held key positions with Republic Tobacco, serving as President, COO, and SVP of Sales & Marketing from 2007-2016, Altadis USA, Alpha Brands, R.J. Reynolds, and RJR International. Steve holds a BA in English from Oakland University. He is also an active contributor to numerous trade associations.

Frederic Levy spent 19 years at Nestle Nespresso in multiple leading roles from Global Head of e-commerce to President of Nespresso North America, a position he held for nine years. After Nespresso, he joined Coravin (an innovative wine device) as CEO, and Alpargatas Group, as President International for Havaianas. Fred is an expert at building brands internationally, and a serial early-stage investor in US and European start-ups.

Tony Abboud is an attorney, government affairs expert, and regulatory consultant who represents companies in the tobacco and vapor spaces and who serves as the executive director of the Vapor Technology Association (VTA). VTA is a U.S. trade association representing the alternative nicotine products industry. Abboud was instrumental in founding and growing VTA, which advocates for rational science-based regulations and a well-regulated marketplace for lower risk nicotine products as an alternative to cigarettes. Abboud has extensive experience in law, public policy, government and politics. He has represented companies on legal and regulatory issues for more than 25 years. Abboud left the international law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP in 2010 to found his consulting firm, Strategic Government Solutions, which focuses on companies and associations in heavily regulated industries, including the tobacco and vapor industries, and has advised such companies for more than a decade. Abboud is recognized as a leading voice for essential regulations and a balanced discussion of vapor products. He is a frequent speaker at national symposiums and has been extensively quoted in the media, including national print, television and radio. Tony lives near Chicago with his wife, a former Cook County prosecutor, and their three children. Tony earned his B.A. in Political Science from Carleton College in 1988 and his J.D. with distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1994.

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Dr. McAuley is the founder and CEO of Change Environmental and a leading expert across various environmental disciplines, such as air quality, human health exposure, sustainability, and environmental risk assessment. He is also a peer elected member of several subcommittees at the National Academies in areas of aviation, transportation, air quality, indoor air quality, exposure assessment, and human health. He is currently an elected member of the Indoor Environmental Standards Organization Research Committee, Vice Chair of Air & Waste Management Technical Advisory Committee, Air & Waste Management AB-1 Particulate Matter Committee, and Treasurer of the International Society for Exposure Science. Dr. McAuley has served on the Transportation Research Board, Committee on Transportation and Air Quality at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, the American Chemical Society Committee on Environmental Initiatives, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. McAuley received his PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering and his MS in Chemistry from Clarkson University along with a BS in Biochemistry from The College of Saint Rose. His certifications include the ATSDR and Risk Assessment Phase I and II Remediation.

Gavin O'Dowd is the Chief Executive Officer of Haypp Group. Mr. O’Dowd has spent 11 years in the nicotine industry, at BAT, in Group Corporate Finance, CFO Iberian and General Manager for Sweden and Norway. He is a chartered management accountant who trained in Accenture and PwC.

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Dr. Niaura is Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Epidemiology, and Chair of the department of Epidemiology at the School of Global Public Health, New York University. From 2009-2017, he was Director of Research at the Schroeder Institute, Truth Initiative (formerly the Legacy Foundation) in Washington DC. He has extensive expertise in tobacco dependence and treatment, and he has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters in this area. His interests include studying the biobehavioral substrates of tobacco dependence; evaluating behavioral and pharmacological treatments for cessation; and understanding and addressing public health disparities in tobacco-related burdens of illness and disability. He has been Principal Investigator (PI) or co-Investigator of over 70 NIH-funded grants, and he is the former President of the Society of Nicotine and Tobacco Research. He also has a background and interest in factors that influence adolescent/early adult tobacco use trajectories. He was PI of one of the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers (TTURC), and is currently a co-I of a large, multicenter initiative: the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study (PATH, funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse/Center for Tobacco Products, FDA), a national, longitudinal cohort study of more than 40,000 users and non-users of tobacco products ages 12+, including adolescents and young adults.