Keagan Lenihan
Keagan Lenihan

Keagan Lenihan, who served as chief of staff and associate commissioner for external affairs & strategic initiatives at the Food and Drug Administration, is now at Philip Morris International.

She is VP of government affairs & public policy and head of the Washington office of the cigarette company.

Deepak Mishra, president of PMI Americas, said Lenihan’s “passion for and expertise in healthcare, life sciences and policy issues” will help the company “reach the next phase in its ambitious transformation away from cigarettes.”

At the FDA from March 2018 to January 2021, Lenihan oversaw daily management of the agency and helped promote its efforts to tackle opioid abuse and pursue tobacco regulation with an emphasis on discouraging young people from smoking.

Prior to the FDA, she was senior counselor to the Secretary of Dept. of Health and Human Services and was special assistant to President Donald Trump, working on staffing issues.

Lenihan joins PMI from Altoida, which she joined in April 2021.

PMI shipped 148.2B cigarettes during the first-quarter, up 2 percent from last year.

That growth came despite a 7.3 percent drop to 18.5B units sold in Eastern Europe due to the shutdown of sales to Russia.

The Marlboro brand grew 6.7 percent to 57.3B units, while Chesterfield sales rose 22.3 percent to 15.6B units.

L&M, PMI’s other Big 3 brand, was off 0.8 percent to 20.2B units.