Manufacturing 2023: TOM HAYES

PRESIDENT, U.S. DIVISION, SWEDISH MATCH, RICHMOND

Published August 30, 2023 by Virginia Business

Hayes began working for the Swedish tobacco products manufacturer in 2006, serving as chief financial officer and senior vice president before becoming president in 2020.

Swedish Match manufactures and sells smoke-free oral tobacco products that have a lower risk of mouth cancer, heart disease and lung cancer than cigarettes, according to the Food and Drug Administration. It makes most of its sales in the U.S. and Scandinavia.

In December 2022, Philip Morris International, the Connecticut-based tobacco company that spun off from Altria Group in 2008, acquired 90% of Swedish Match shares for $16 billion. In April, PMI reported that Swedish Match’s integration into the company helped boost its smoke-free product sales by 14.5% to $2.8 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023.

A graduate of Wake Forest University and MIT’s executive education program, Hayes worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers for 17 years, followed by Chesapeake Corp., where he was controller and chief accounting officer.

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