PHILIP MORRIS SET TO NAME INSIDER CAMILLERI TO SUCCEED BIBLE AS CEO

Source: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition
Date: Wednesday, January 30, 2002
Author: GORDON FAIRCLOUGH / Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
URL: here

The smoke is about to clear on who will next lead Philip Morris Cos. At a
meeting Wednesday in the company's Park Avenue headquarters, directors are
expected to choose Louis C. Camilleri, the company's soft-spoken chief
financial officer, to succeed Geoffrey C. Bible as chief executive officer
of the tobacco-and-food company.

According to people close to the situation, the 47-year-old Mr. Camilleri
is to be formally elected CEO in late April. Mr. Bible will remain chairman
until he retires in August, these people say. Mr. Camilleri declined to
comment.

Mr. Camilleri will inherit a very different company -- in a vastly changed
world -- from the one Mr. Bible took over in 1994. Three years after the
tobacco industry's landmark $206 billion settlement with state governments,
Philip Morris is on a roll. Though beset by litigation and hounded by
critics, the company has managed to boost profits and gain market share at
the expense of its competitors.

Mr. Camilleri will be one of the youngest men ever appointed to the top job
at Philip Morris -- the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, Kraft foods, Nabisco
cookies and Miller beer -- and one of the youngest executives to lead such
a large multinational company. A chain-smoker of Marlboro Ultralights, Mr.
Camilleri has worked as finance chief since 1996. He has experience in the
company's international tobacco and food businesses and has developed a
reputation as a diplomat.

That's a contrast to the more pugnacious Mr. Bible and the man sources say
was Mr. Camilleri's top inside rival for the CEO slot, Michael E.
Szymanczyk, the head of the U.S. tobacco business. Mr. Szymanczyk, a
6-foot-8, hard-driving salesman, couldn't be reached to comment. . .

As CEO, Mr. Camilleri's top priorities will be to expand Philip Morris's
overseas operations through a combination of internal growth and
acquisitions, according to a top Philip Morris executive familiar with Mr.
Camilleri's thinking. Mr. Camilleri also plans to make the company a better
corporate citizen, in part "by supporting tobacco regulation in the U.S.
and around the world," something that lends more stability and
predictability to the business, this executive says. . .

Mr. Camilleri helped devise the financial architecture of the industry's
deal with the states. During the settlement negotiations, he was called in
to explain to the attorneys general the concept of "price elasticity,"
which is different for cigarettes than for many other goods. Because
smokers are hooked on cigarettes, they are less responsive to price
increases. That means that at least in the short to medium term, profits
can rise even as consumption declines. . .

One key question is what will happen to Steven C. Parrish, a senior vice
president who has been leading the company's push for FDA regulation and is
in charge of corporate affairs.