Philip Morris announced the appointment of Jacek Olczak has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the company following the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, held yesterday, taking over from André Calantzopoulos, CEO from 2013 to today, appointed Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors . Olczak – until now Chief Operating Officer of the company – was elected a member of the Board of Directors of Pmi. The appointments follow the announcement made in December 2020 about the transition to the top management of SMEs, also following the resignation of Louis Camilleri. Accepting the appointment, Olczak reaffirmed the commitment “to accelerate the transformation of SMEs towards a smoke-free future, announced in 2016”. The company – reads a note – “focuses on the development, scientific evaluation and responsible marketing of smokeless products, better alternatives to cigarettes, with the aim of replacing the latter as soon as possible”. “SMEs – observed the new CEO – are among the industry leaders in scientific innovation and our ambition is that more than half of our net revenues come from smoke-free products in 2025. Our evolving portfolio will guide our future to long term. We will rely on scientific research and our expertise, leveraging the talent and imagination of our people to innovate the existing product portfolio and explore new areas of business development. “Jacek Olczak, Polish, 56, is in the group since 1993 and held positions in the finance and general management sectors across Europe, including as CEO in Poland and Germany and as President of the European Union region, before being appointed Chief Financial Officer in 2012. He held this position until 2018, when he became Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the group. In his role, Olczak – explains Pmi – “was a fundamental engine in the transformation of SMEs, which materialized with the launch of Iqos in Japan and Italy in 2014” and under his supervision as COO, the company reached, in the first quarter by 2021, 28% of net revenues from smokeless products, increasing the geographic distribution of those products from zero to 66 markets, in key cities or nationally. Olczak also “led the commercial transformation of PMI, leading the company from a business-to-business model to a company increasingly attentive to the final consumer”. For Calantzopoulos “Jacek is in the ideal position to make the vision of a future come true. smoke-free. I believe he is the ideal leader to ensure continued growth of our business and ensure the creation of shareholder value. I look forward to continuing to work with him in my new capacity as Executive Chairman of the Board. ” Moreover, the company underlines, the appointment of Olczak “will give new and further impetus to the centrality of Italy in the transformation of SMEs” which sees over 30,000 people involved in an integrated and entirely Made in Italy supply chain. The group in our country has generated huge investments, both in the agricultural sector – about 2 billion euros since 2000 – and in manufacturing, thanks to over 1 billion euros invested in the Bologna area for the first factory in the world for tobacco products without combustion. To complete the Italian supply chain, the recent investments for the construction of the Philip Morris DISC, a center dedicated to digital consumer services based in Taranto, and the start of the works of the Philip Morris Institute for Manufacturing Competences, the new center of Philip Morris for advanced skills training for industry 4.0 based in Bologna.
