Who

Camilleri is the chairman and CEO of Altria, the company once known as Philip Morris.

Backstory

Born in Alexandria to Maltese parents, Camilleri was sent to boarding school in England when his family left Egypt during the Suez crisis. After attending college in Switzerland and a two-year stint at the chemicals company W.R. Grace, he joined Philip Morris's Swiss subsidiary in 1978, later heading up the tobacco giant's operations in Eastern Europe during the fall of Communism. By the mid-1990s, Camilleri had relocated to the U.S.; he was named the company's CFO in 1996. After Phillip Morris's brash chief Geoffrey Bible stepped down in 2002, Camilleri was named chairman and CEO. Today, with brands like Marlboro, Parliament, and Virginia Slims, he oversees a $100 billion-a-year global empire with some 85,000 employees working in 160 countries.

Of note

An unrepentant smoker since the age of 17, Camilleri is said to puff two packs of Marlboro Ultra Lights a day, and says he's never tried to quit. That qualified him, at least in spirit, to take the reins from Geoffrey Bible in 2002, although he's demonstrated a different approach to running Altria than the confrontational Aussie who relished making waves with lawmakers and anti-smoking advocates. Low-key and exceedingly diplomatic, Camilleri was viewed as the sort of savvy, strategic exec who could guide the company into an uncertain future. As CFO, he helped negotiate the settlement with 46 states over the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses, and he championed its $19 billion purchase of Nabisco in 2000.

Since taking over as CEO, Camilleri has been just as skillful, changing the company's name from Philip Morris to the generic, benevolent-sounding Altria Group as part of a bid to downplay its controversial reputation. (Camilleri claimed the change was designed to reflect the company's ownership of other brands like Kraft Foods, a statement that seemed a bit dubious after it was revealed company execs had discussed changing the name before they'd even acquired Kraft.) More recently, he's been busy restructuring the company, divesting Altria of its majority stake in Miller Brewing and executing a long awaited spin-off of Kraft Foods in 2007. Major obstacles remain, of course—and a good deal of litigation is still pending—but Camilleri isn't placing big bets on the U.S. market. Altria recently spun off Philip Morris International as a separate, Swiss-based company. PMI will focus on global expansion where there are more opportunities for growth and fewer legal headaches while the U.S.-based Altria will pay more attention to the company's non-tobacco-based products.

By the numbers

Camilleri earned $17.01 million in 2006, down from $18.1 million a year earlier.

Personal

Camilleri is divorced from his wife, Marjolyn; they have three children. He lives in Chelsea.