George Weissman

American businessman (1919–2009)

George Weissman (July 12, 1919 – July 24, 2009) was an American businessman and former chairman and CEO of Philip Morris (now Altria).²

From Wikipedia’s article on George Weissman (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Jul 12, 1919, died Jul 24, 2009.¹

Companies

Philip Morris InternationalChief executive officer 1960 to 1984¹¹

Early life and education

Date not recordedTownsend Harris High School³
Date not recordedZicklin School of Business³
Date not recordedBaruch College³

Career

Occupation: patron of the arts, merchant, art collector, businessperson, military officer.^{8 9}

Since 1960Chief executive, Philip Morris International⁶
Since 1960Chief executive officer^{5 7}
Since 1952Worked at Philip Morris International^{4 5}

Personal life

CitizenshipUnited States¹⁰

Philanthropy

Weissman was deeply involved in arts and education philanthropy. He served as chairman of the board of the Lincoln Center for the Performing arts and was a founding member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Festival. He was also a trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Although Weissman stated in 1954, “Believe me, if any one of us believed that this product we were making and selling was in any way harmful to our customers’ health—and our own as well—we would voluntarily go out of business”, Philip Morris in fact continues to produce hundreds of billions of cigarettes every year, despite ample evidence that cigarettes are indeed harmful to their customers health.